
HANEY'S TRADE MANUALS. 




THE 



IHORSE SHOERS' MANUAL; 

\ A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO 

\ 

\ HORSE SHOEING IN ALL VARIETIES, 

\ including 

\ Preparation of Foot, Choice and Prepara- 
tion ov Shoes, Fitting, Filing, Nailing, &c. 

\ TO WHICH IS added 

< YOUATT'S CELEBRATED TREATISE 

< 

\ ON 

Diseases of thk horse's foot. 



-O-oJOJOO- 



im fork: 

< JBSSR HANEY & 00., PUBLISHERS, 




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$100 




Fig. 1.— FORE FOOT, PARED OUT READY FOR SHOEING. 



See Fifteenih I'agc. 



n A. N E ~sr ' s 



Horse Shoers' Manual, 



A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO 



Porse Sljoting in its giffewnt f amtits. 

INCLUDING 

PREPARATION OF THE FOOT, CHOICE AND PREPARATION" 
OF SHOES, FITTING, FILING, NAILING, ETC. 

DERIVED FROM " MILLS' TREATISE ON HORSE SHOEING." 

TO WHICH IS ADDED 
ON 

THE DISEASES OF THE HORSE'S FOOT. 




V 

JESSE HANEY & CO., PUBLISHERS, 

No, 119 Nassau Street. 



o1 

PREFACE TO HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



^^^v 



While it is the intention to have HaNEY'S Tkaok, MANUALS mainly original, 
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^ives the best possible details of the horse shoer's art, and while there are some local 
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result from individual tastes or circumstances. The treatise on Diseases of the 
Horse's Foot which is appended, will be found useful in many cases, and will doubt- 
less prove accei)table in tliis cheap, convenient form. 



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HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



HORSE SHOES IN HISTORY. 

The Romans shod their horses, though not in the same 
way as we do. Their pedillum'^' lapped over, and therefore 
occasioned a rattling sound. Winckelmann has published a 
drawing of a Kouian gem, showing one man holding up the 
foot of a horse, and another man shoeing it. An iron horse- 
shoe is mentioned by Appian ; but shoes (carbatinee) made 
of raw hides were, as Aristotle and Pliny attest, put upon 
camels in the time of war and during long journeys. Nero 
is said, by Suetonius, to have shod his mules with silver. 
Pliny records of Poppsea, the empress of Nero, that she 
used gold for the same purpose. These shoes had probably 
the upper part only formed of the precious metals, or per- 
haps they were plated out of thin slips. 

In the horseshoes found in the German barrows, saj'^s 
Fosbroke, the shoes project not downward, but upward. 
At Ooluey, in England, wx^rc found Roman urns, and a horse- 
shoe of uncommon form — round and broad in front, narrow- 
ing very much backward, and having its extreme ends al- 
most brought close behind, and rather pointing inward, with 
the nail-holes still perfect. An early instance of nails in 
horseshoes is furnished by one of a horse buried with Chil- 
deric I., who died 481, which was fastened with nine nails 
(Archeeologia, iii, 35). Du Gauge and Garew mention the 
custom of shoeing only the fore-feet. La Brocquiere de- 
scribes the oriental horseshoes as being very light, rather 
lengthened toward the heel, and thinner there than at the 
toe. They were not turned up, and had but four nail-holes, 

*Slioe. 



10 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

two upon each side. The nails were square, with a thick 
and heavy head. 

The present mode of shoeing horses was introduced into 
England by the Normans, at the time of the conquest. 
The Britons had been taught the use of them by the 
Homans, but their pedolan were probably considered too 
clumsy to be adopted by the Saxons. The Franks in the 
ninth century, and probably also the Normans, shod their 
horses in winter only. 

It may be mentioned, that the male horse only was rid- 
den by knights and people of any distinction in the middle 
ages ; and that to ride a mare was always looked upon as a 
degradation. This was either a religious superstition, or an 
old Teutonic prejudice. In the thirteenth century, horses 
were obtained from Turkey and Greece, and at a later peri- 
od from Barbary. The lord rode the destrier, or war-horse j 
the lady, the palefroi, or palfrey ; the servant, the roncin j 
and the luggage was carried by a sommier, or sumpter. 
White horses were most prized, after them dapple-gray, and 
bay or chestnut. It is curious to find that, in 1435, the 
queen of Navarre gave carrots to her horses The ordinary 
price of horses in England, in the reign of Edward I., was 
from one to ten pounds. When St. Louis returned to France 
from his captivity, the abbot of Oluny presented to the 
king and queen each a horse, the value of which Joinville 
estimated at five hundred livres — equal to about four hun- 
dred pounds of the present English money. Feats of horse- 
manship were much practiced j one of these was to jump 
into the saddle in full armor : 

No foot Filzjames in stirrup staid, 
No grasp upon the saddle laid, 
But wreathed his left hand in the mane, 
And lightly bounded from the plain. 

Horses were frequently given as bribes. The widow of 
Herbert de Mesnil gave King John of England a palfrey to 
obtain the wardship of her children, and one Geoffrey Fitz- 
Richard gave the same monarch a palfrey for a concession 
in the forest of Beaulieu. 

A large pitcher, ornamented with horseshoes, was found 
in a Norman pottery, discovered on the estate of Lord Scars- 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 11 

dale, near Derby. It is figured in the reliquary, and is a 
very interesting example of the period. The decoration is 
the badge of the ancient lords of the soil on which the ves- 
sel was made, and it was probably designed for castle use. 
The badge is that of the family of Ferrars, earls of Derby, 
Ferrars, and Nottingham, who held Duffield castle from the 
time of Henry III., when the lands were confiscated. 

In Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIIL, we read that 
Henry " having feasted the ladies royally for divers days, 
did depart from Tournay to Lisle (October 13, 1513), 
whither he was invited by the Lady Margaret, who caused 
there a joust to be held in an extraordinary manner ; the 
place being a large room, raised higli from the ground by 
many steps, and paved with black square stones like marble j 
while the horses, to prevent slipping, were shod with felt 
or flocks (the Latin words are feltro sive tomento), after 
which the ladies danced all night." Shoeing with felt is 
mentioned by Shakespeare. 

Aubrey, in his Miscellanies, says : " Under the porch of 
Staninfielcl Church, in Sufi"olk, I saw a tile with a horseshoe 
upon it, placed there to hinder the power of witches, though 
one would imagine that the holy water would have been 
suflScient." The charm of the horseshoe lies in its being 
forked, and presenting two points. Thus Herrick, in his 
Hesperides, says : 

Hang up hooks and sheers, to scare 
Hence the hag that rides the mare, 
Till they be all over wet 
With the mire and with the s\\ eat ; 
This observed, the manes shall be 
Of your horses all Imot-free. 

Even the two forefingers held out apart, are thought to 
avert the evil eye, or prevent the machinations of the lord 
and master of the nether world. 

The pentacle, or seal of Solomon, is supposed to possess 
great power, as being composed of two triangles present- 
ing six forked ends, and therefore called pentacle erroneously. 

Mr. Timbs states, that when Monmouth street was a fash- 
ionable locality of London, it was noted for its number of 
horseshoes nailed over the doorways or on the sill. In 1813, 



12 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

Sir Henry Ellis counted here seventeen; in 1841, there 
were six , but in 1852, there were eleven ; now there are 
fewer. Nelson had great faith in the horseshoe, and one 
was nailed to the mast of the ship Victory. '^ Lucky Dr. 
James" attributed the success of his fever-powder to his 
finding a horseshoe, which he adopted as the crest upon his 
carriage. A horseshoe is very conspicuous at the gate of 
Meux's brewery, at the corner of Tottenham court road, and 
on the trappings of the horses of the establishment. The 
lucky belief in the horseshoe may have led to its having 
been adopted as the ornamental portion of a scarf-pin. 

Messrs Larwood and Hotten, in their History of Sign- 
boards, state that the horseshoe by itself is comparatively a 
rare sig.n. The three horseshoes, however, are not uncom- 
mon ; and the single shoe may be met with in many com- 
binations, arising from the old belief in its lucky influences. 
The sun and horseshoe is still a public house sign in Great 
Litchfield street; and the magpie and horseshoe may be 
seen carved in wood in Fetter lane — the magpie perched 
within the horsehoe, and a bunch of grapes being suspended 
from it. Slight remains of this superstitious regard for the 
horseshoe are to be found here and there in the United States. 



THEORY AND PRACTICE. 

Before I enter on the subject of shoeing, I must notice 
two things, which we must not only believe, but act upon, 
if we ever hope to arrive at really good horseshoeing ; the 
first is, that nature has given to what horsemen call a good 
shaped foot the form best suited to the horse's wants ; and 
the second is, that the hoof expands, when the horse's 
weight is thrown upon it, and contracts, when it is taken 
off again ; but the mere belief in these things will be of no 
use, unless we make the shoe to fit the foot, and nail it on 
in such a. manner, as will allow the hoof to expand and con- 
tract ; for we might as well not believe at all, as believe a 
thing to be right, and not do it. 

Nailing an iron shoe to a living horse's foot is a very un- 



HORSE SHOERS^ MANFAL. Vi. 

natural thing to do, but, as it must be done, it is oar duty 
to see how we can do it with the least damage to the horse 
To show this, I will suppose mj^self addressing a young 
smith, who is about to shoe his first horse. 



PREPARING THE FOOT. 

You must begin by taking off one of the old shoes, and I 
say one, because the others should always be left on, for 
the horse to rest upon : all horses stand quieter on shod feet 
than they can on bare ones ; and they are less likely to 
break the crust ; many tender footed horses are in positive 
agony, when forced to rest on a bare foot, while the oppo- 
site one is held up, to be shod. 

First raise all the clinches with the buffer, and if the 
shoe will not then come off easily, loosen some of the nails 
with the punch ; but never tear the shoe off by main force ; it 
splits the crust, widens the nail holes, and destroys the horn. 

The shoe being off, you should rasp the edge of the hoof 
all round, and take out any stubs, that may be left in the 
crust. Then you must pare out the foot ; and this requires 
both care and thought. If the horse has a strong foot with 
plenty of horn, you should shorten the toe, lower the heels 
and crust, and remove the dead horn from the sole, and also 
from the corners between the heels and the bars ; the best 
way of doing this is to pare the bars down nearly level with 
the sole, and then you can get at the dead horn in the cor- 
ners more easily. The part of the bar which stands up 
above the sole, would have been worn away, or broken 
down, if the shoe had not kept the hoof off the ground : 
therefore you had better always pare it down ; but on no ac- 
count ever cut anything away from the sides of the bars, 
nor, what is called, '^ open out the heels ;" and be sure, 
that you never touch the frog with a knife. Now remem- 
ber, that there are three things, which you must never do 
in paring out a foot ; you must never cut the sides of the 
bars, nor open out the heels, nor pare the frog^ and I will 
tell you why you must never do them. 



14 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

The bars are placed where they are, to keep the heels 
from closing in upon the frog, and if you thin them by cut- 
ting their sides, you weaken them, and they can no longer 
do it, and the foot begins to contract. 

Opening out the heels does exactly the same thing by 
weakening the very parts which nature placed there, to 
keep the heels apart. It takes some time to contract a 
horse's foot so much as to lame him. • and because the con- 
traction comes on by slow degrees, no one notices it, until 
the horse falJs lame, and then every one wonders what can 
have done it ; but very few hit upon Ihe right cause. 

The frog is a thick, springy cushion, whose chief use is 
to protect a very important joint, called the navicular joint, 
and it is covered by a thin layer of horn, which keeps in the 
moisture ; and every time you slice off any of the frog, you 
lay bare a part that was never meant to be exposed to the 
air, and it dries, and cracks, and forms rags ; and if these 
rags are cut off at every fresh shoeing, the whole frog be- 
comes as dry and hard as a board ; and the horse gets an 
incurable disease, called " navicular disease f therefore I 
say, leave the frog alone ; it will never grow too large ; for 
long before that would happen, the outci* covering will shell 
off, and a new, horny covering will be found underneath ; and 
as to the rags, leave them alone also, and they will fall off 
of themselves. 

A weak, flat foot will bear very little paring, or rasping ; 
the crust of such a foot is sure to be thin at the toe, and 
low at the heels, with a thin and weak sole 5 therefore the 
less you do to it the better, beyond making the crust level, 
where it is to bear upon the shoe ; this must be done to all 
feet, and as the inner quarter, where there should be no 
nails, does not wear away as fast as the outer quarter, 
where the nails are driven, you should always place a rasp 
upon its edge across the foot, to be quite sure that the two 
sides are level. I have known shoes lost from the inside 
quarter being higher, than the outside -, which caused the 
foot to bear unevenly on the shoe. 

Before you pare out a foot, you should always think of 
the state of the roads, and if they are dry, and covered with 
loose stones, or have been lately repaired, you should take 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 15 

very little oif the sole of any foot because, if you thin it 
the stones will bruise it, but when the season is wet^ and 
the stones worn in, you may pare the sole of a strong foot 
a little, until it will yield in a very slight degree to the 
heaviest pressure you can make upon it with your thumbs j 
but you must never pare it thin enough to yield to less pres- 
sure than the very heaviest you can brhig to bear upon it. 
Fig. 1 shows a good shaped near fore foot pared out 
ready for shoeing. I have placed letters against the differ- 
ent parts. The toe reaches from A to A, the letter B shows 
the middle of each quarter, and marks the heels. You 
will observe that the crust is thicker on the outer quarter, 
where the nails should be. than it is on the inner quarter, 
where a nail must never be driven ; and you will also see 
that the hoof is not a circle, as many persons suppose it to 
be, but is straighter on the inside, than it is on the outside. 
D marks the sole, E shows the upper parts of the bars 
pared down nearly level with the sole. F shows that part 
which must never be touched by a knife, G marks the frog, 
and is placed just over the situation of the navicular joint. 
I would advise you to examine this frog well, because it is, 
what every horse's frog should look like, plump, full and 
even, with a broad, shallow cleft, not split through at 
the back part ; and if you shoe your horses properly, and 
never pare the frog, it is what their frogs "will come to in 
time. 



THE SHOE. 

Before I talk about the shoe, I must settle names for the 
upper and under surfaces ; because I fear I should mislead 
those who are not smiths, if I call the part that rests upon 
the ground "^ the upper surface,'' as smiths do ; I shall 
therefore call that part of the shoe '^ the ground surface ;" 
and the part which goes next the foot I shall call " the 
foot surface ; " and then there can be no mistake as to 
which surface I mean. 

In turning your store shoes " in the rough," you should 



>6 



HORSE SHOERS i&Alf[JAL. 



leave them longer at the heels, than sini1;hs generally do j 
we shall see the reason for it, when we come to ^' fitting the 
shoe ; '' and you should make the web as wide at the heels 
as it is at the toe, and of the same thickness throughout 
from the toe back to the heels. The ^' fuller " should be 
carried quite round then to the heels, and the 
fullering iron should have both sides alike. 
It is a far better tool than the one-sided 
iron in common use, which is generally so 
narrow and sharp, that it not only makes the 
groove too small for the heads of the nails 
to sink into, but it often splits the shoe. A 
narrow groove may look neater than a wide 
one ; but you will find a wide one much 
more useful. 



CHOOSING A SHOE. 



The first thing to look to in choosing a 
shoe is the kind of foot you have to deal 
with. If the foot be a strong, good shaped 
one, it will be an easy matter to find a shoe 
for it ; only be sure to take great care that 
the web is not too narrow, and that the shoe is not too 
light. A light shoe is apt to bend, before it is half worn 
out ; and the pain, caused by the pressure of the bent nails 
against the tender linhig of the hoof throws the horse down, 
and most likely breaks his knees. If the foot should be flat 
with a weak, brittle crust, you must still choose a stout 
shoe ; for a horse with such a foot could not go at all on a 
bent shoe ; and the shoe must have a wide web, because 
the sole is sure to be thin, and will need plenty of cover to 
protect it. 

You must also look at the seating, for, if the foot is weak 
and flat, the shoe must be well seated out, to prevent its 
pressing upon and bruising the sole ; but, if the foot is strong, 
and the sole arched, there need not be more seating than 
will allow the point of a picker to pa?s freely round between 




Fis. 2. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 17 

the sole and the shoe ; otherwise dirt and small stones will' 
get in, and bruise the sole as much as the shoe would do, 
if it pressed upon it. 



CUTTING OFF THE HEELS. 

Having fixed on a shoe to your mind, be- 
gin by cutting ofi" the heels ; and you will 
find a half round chisel a better tool for the 
purpose, than a straight one, because you 
should never cut them off square , if you do, 
you will find it impossible to fit the shoe 
properly to the heels, and at the same time 
keep the web as wide at the heels, as it is at 
the toe ; for one of the corners of the shoe 
will be sticking into the frog, while the other 
stands out beyond the crust ; but, if you cut 
them off as shown in Fig. 4 you will have no 
difficulty in bringing every part of the shoe 
into its proper place on the foot. Fig. 1 is a 
shoe turned in the rough ; and the dotted 
lines show the direction, in which the heels 
should be cut off. The side next the frog 
shouid be cut off from to B, and the outer 
corner from A to B, and then the shoe will 
Fig. 3. JqqJ^ Y\\q Fig. 5, which with a little hammer- 
ing over the beak of the anvil will soon come like Fig. 6 5 
you will see that the points marked A in Fig. 5 have dis- 
appeared in Fig 6, and that the parts between A and B on 
each side have become a portion of the outer rim of the 
shoe ; whereby the outer rim is lengthened and the inner 
rim shortened ; and there are no corners left to prevent 
your fitting the shoe to the exact sweep of the crust at the 
heels, and you are also enabled to keep the web as wide at 
the heels as it is at the toe. I have introduced Fig. 6 in 
this place, because it gave me the opportunity of explaining 
the reason for cutting off the heels, as I have directed ; bui 
at this stage of the business it is a good plan always to 




18 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



leave the quarters and heels rather straight and wide apart, 
until you have fitted the toe ; because it is less trouble to 
bring them in, than it is to open tiiem out, after the front 
has been fitted. 



THE NAIL HOLES. 

You must next open the nail holes ) but be sure that 
they have been stamped so as to pass straight through the 

shoe, and come 
out on the foot 
surface in the flat 
part of the web, 
and not partly in 
the flat and part- 
ly in the seating. 
It is a very bad 
plan to make 
them slant in- 
ward as most 
smiths do ; for in 
driving a nail, 
they have first to 
pitch the point 
inward, then 
turn it outward, 
driving it all the 
time with the 
grain of the crust, and at last they bring it oat high up in 
the thinnest part of the hoof, and have the weakest part of 
the nail for a clinch. Now, instead of all this, if you make 
the holes straight through the shoe, you have only to drive 
the nail straight, and it will go through the shoe across the 
grain of the crust, and come out low down in the thickest 
part of the hoof, and give you a strong clinch, made out of 
the shank of the nail, instead of a weak one made out of the 
point. The advantage of straight holing is, that you are 
sure never to prick the foot in driving a nail, and you get a 




HORSE SHOBRS' MANUAL. 



19 




firmer hold for the shoe ; every body knows, that a short 

purchase across 
^ B the line of the 

strain is stronger 
than a longer one 
in the direction 
of the strain. 

The soundness 
of the horse's 
foot, so far as 
shoeing is con- 
cerned, depends 
more upon the 
number of nails, 
and where they 
are placed, than 
upon anything 
else J for, if the 
shoe is ever so 
badly formed 

and the nail holes are rightly placed, very little harm will 

happen to the fout beyond the loss of a shoe ; but, if the 

shoe is of the best 

possible shape, and 

fitted to the foot in 

the most perfect 

manner, unless the 

nail holes are placed 

so that the foot can 

expand it must in 

the end become un- 
sound. The portion 

of hoof which ex- 
pands the most is 

the inner quarter 

and heel ; you must 

therefore leave 

those parts free 

from nails ; and the 

way to do it is never 




20 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

to stamp more than two holes on the inside of the shoe, one 
about an inch and a quarter from the center of the toe, and 
the other about three quarters of an inch behind it. It is 
quite clear that if you nail both sides of a horse's hoof to an 
iron shoe, the hoof will be held fast and cannot expand j 
and when the horse's weight forces the bones of the foot 
into the hoof the tender lining of the hoof will be squeezed 
against the shanks of the naiis, and cause pain to the horse 
at every step he takes. The whole number of nail holes 
should never exceed five ; three on the outside and two on 
the inside. I have proved over and over again, that five 
nails will hold on a fore shoe at any kind of work, in any 
<^;ountry, and at any pace. When a shoe is properly fitted 
CO the foot, and fastened by five nails, nothing but the 
smith's pincers can pull it off". 

Having cut off the heels, and opened the nail holes, you 
must next turn up a clip at the toe ; every shoe should have 
one at the toe, it keeps the shoe steady, and prevents its 
being forced back ; but you should never put one at either 
side, for if it were put on the inside, it would prevent the 
hoof expanding ; and on the outside it is worse than useless, 
for the nails there are quite sufficient to keep the shoe from 
working across the foot, and the clip will interfere with the 
placing of on^ qC the nails, and will destroy more of the 
crust, than two nails would have done. 



FITTING THE SHOE 

You must always bear in mind, that '' fi'^ting the shoe " 
means fitting the shoe to the foot, and not fitting the fool 
to the shoe, as is too often done in many forges. 

It is a bad plan for a beginner to try to fit the whole of 
the shoe at once; it is much better, uctil you have had a 
good deal of practice, to fit the toe first, then the quarters, 
and lastly 1 he heels; but, before you begin to fit the toe, 
take a look at the Id shoe, and see how much of the toe of 
it is worn away,- because just so much of the new shoe 



HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 21 

should be turned up from the ground, to remove it out of 
the line of wear. 

We all know that horses go better and stumble less in 
old shoes than they do in new ones, and the reason why 
they do so, is, because they have worn away the toe, and 
no longer jar the foot by striking the toe against hard sub- 
stances in the road. A new shoe turned up at the toe, is 
the same thing to the horse as an old one worn down ; 
but with this great difference to his comfort, that he is easy 
upon the new one from the time it is first put on, whereas 
he was never easy upon the old one, until he had worn away 
the toe. 

When a horse wears his shoe hard at the toe, it is the 
custom of most smiths to weld a lump of steel on to it, to 
make him longer in wearing it away ; but this only increases 
the jar to his foot ; whereas turning up the toe makes the 
shoes last quite as long, and saves the horse from a great 
deal of unnecessary suffering. A strong foot will bear the 
toe to be turned up a good deal ; but a flat foot is always 
weak at the toe, and cannot bear the removal of any of the 
horn from it ; the best way therefore of dealing with a very 
flat foot is to fit the shoe to it without turning up the toe, 
then to make the toe of the shoe red hot, and place it in the 
vice with the ground surface toward you, and in that posi- 
tion rasp the iron away from that part of the toe, which 
would have rested on the ground ; the horse will travel 
safer and better for it, and the loss of a little iron from the 
toe will not cause the shoe to wear out faster ; for a flat- 
footed horse will generally wear away the heels of a shoe 
long before he has worn out the toe. 

You can make a very handy tool for turning up the toe 
of a shoe by '^ shutting '' a piece of iron five inches long and 
one inch broad, crosswise on to each blade of a pair of 
smith's tonges ; with this tool you will be able to grasp 
both limbs of the shoe at once, and not only turn up the toe 
over the end of the anvil, but restore the seating at the toe 
without bending the shoe, or putting it out of shape ; which 
you could not do without a great deal of trouble by holding 
one limb at a time in common tongs. The accompanying 
figure shows you this tool in use with the ground surface of 



22 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



the shoe uppermost, for turning up the toe, and you have 
only to reverse it, keeping the same grasp of the shoe, and 
the foot surface will come uppermost, ready to have the 
seating made good. 

I wUl now suppose that you have turned up the toe of 
the shoe, shortened the toe of the hoof, rasped the crust, to 
receive the turned up shoe, and cut a notch for the clip ; 
you had better next, until you have gained experience in 
fitting a shoe, "■ spring " the heels, to prevent their burning 




Fig. 7. 

the back part of the crust, while you are fitting the shoe to 
the fore part; but you must bring them down again, before 
you fit the quarters and heels, and never leave them 
" sprung " when the shoe is nailed on. 

You must now put the toe of the shoe in the fire, and 
make it hot enough to mark the uneven portions of horn, 
which should be lightly removed by the rasp, until an even 
bed is left for the shoo to rest upon. You need not fear to 
burn the toe of a strong foot ; it can do no harm ; but a 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL 23 

weak foot with a tbin crust of course will not bear mucb 
burning, still the shoe should be made hot enough to scorch 
the horn, and show where the hoof fails to bear upon it. 

When the toe is once properly fitted, there will be very 
little trouble in fitting the quarters and heels ; you have only 
to bring them in over the beak of the anvil, until the edge 
of the shoe ranges with the edge of the hoof back to the 
furthest point of the heel on each side, and continue the 
same sweep, until it nearly touches the frog ; there must be 
none of the shoe left sticking out beyond the hoof either be- 
hind, or at the sides of the heels. 

I know that a great many smiths are very fond of what 
are called " opened heeled shoes," which means shoes with 
straight heels, wide apart, and projecting beyond the hoof 
both behind and at the sides ; and the only reason I have ever 
heard in favor of such shoes is a very bad one, viz.: that the 
horse requires more support at the heels, than he gets from 
the hoof; but you may depend upon it, thatnature has made 
no mistake about it ,♦ and if the horse really wanted more 
support, than he gets from the heels of the hoof, he would 
have had it ; but I think I shall prove that this kind of shoe 
instead of being a benefit to the horse is a positive evil to 
him ; it interferes with his action, and exposes his sole and 
frog to serious injury from stones in the road ; and the pro- 
jecting portions of the shoe become ledges, for stiff ground 
to cling to, and pull the shoe off. More shoes are lost 
through these mischievous projections at the heels, than 
from all other causes put together. 

Let us see how it is that these projecting heels interfere 
with the horse's action. It is not necessary for this pur- 
pose to trouble you with the anatomy of the foot, but merely . 
to state that all its parts are joined to each other in such a 
manner as to form one great spring, and that the foot is 
joined to the leg by the pastern and coronet bones in a di- 
rection slanting forward, which brings the foot a little in ad- 
vance of the leg, and places the heels in front of a line, 
dropped from the center of the fetlock joint to the ground. 

1 The shank or cannon bone. 

2 The pastern bone. 

3 The coronet bone. 



24 



HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 



4 The sessamoid bone. 

A. The point where the weight of the horse would fall on 
the upper end of the pastern bone. 

B. The point where a line 
dropped from A would meet the 
ground. 

C. The heel of the hoof. 
Now it is clear that the weight 

of the horse will fall upon the 
upper end of this slanting pastern 
bone at every step, and ttie bone 
having a joint at each end of it 
will sink to the weight thus 
thrown upon it, and break the 
force of the shock both to the 
leg and foot ; but, if the heels of 
the shoe are longer than the heels 
of the hoof, the projecting pieces 
of iron will meet the ground fur- 
ther back than natural heels 
would have done, and will check 
the sinking of the pastern bone 
just as an upright pastern does, by bringing the heels too 
much under the center of the weight, which causes the 
horse to step short and go stumpy. 

If you wish to avoid these evils and keep tne norse's shoes 
on his feet, you must bring in the hee^s, and let the shoe 
strictly follow the form of the foot, whatever that form may 
be. 

The part of the foot that needs protection from injury 
more than any other, is the "navicular joint," which rests 
upon the frog about an inch, or an inch and a quarter be- 
hind its point ; and the only way to protect it is to keep the 
web of the shoe as wide at the heels as it is at the toe, and 
to bring in the heels until they nearly touch the frog; by so 
doing you lessen the opening of the shoe, and the web of 
one side or the other will strike upon the stones in the road 
and save the frog from coming with full force upon them. 
But open-heeled shoes leave the frog entirely exposed to 
very large stones and are the cause of many a severe bruise 




Fig. 8. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



25 



to the navicular joint, which lays the foundation of future 
incurable lameness. 

I have often seen shoes so wide at the heels, that I have 
placed my clinched band within the opening of tbe shoe 
without touching either side of it -, and where my fist could 
go a stone as large could go. 

Another great advantage of bringing in the heels and 




fitting the shoe close is the certainty that the horse will not 
cast his shoe ; you leave nothing for stiff ground to lay hold 
of, and if you slightly bevel the inside quarter and heel of 
the shoe from the foot downward, as is sometimes done to 
prevent a horse cutting, no ground in the world can pull it 
off; for the foot expanding to the weight of the horse, en- 
larges the hole made by the shoe, and leaves more space for 
the shoe to come out of, than it made for itself to go in at ; 



26 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

but, if the shoe projects beyond the hoof at any part, and 
more particularly at the heels, the foot cannot fill the hole 
made by the shoe, and stifle clay will cling round the pro- 
jection and pull the shoe off. 

Having so far finished the shoe, place it on the face of 
the anvil with the toe hanging over the side, and see that 
the foot surface of the quarters and heels are quite level ; 
then make it hot enough to scorch the hoof all round and 
form a bed for itself,- without this it would be next to 
impossible to insure close fitting, for after you have made the 
foot as level as you can with the rasp, and the shoe as level 
as you can on the anvil, the chances are very much against 
their fitting like two planed boards, as they ought to do ; 
and the quantity of horn to be thus removed is so small as 
not to be worth thinking about. It is a mistake to suppose 
that a hot shoe injures the hoof j it does nothing of the kind, 
and you cannot possibly fit a shoe properly without making 
it hot. I would not have you burn a shoe into its place on 
the foot before you had taken care to make both the foot 
and the shoe as level as you could, but when you have done 
that, the small quantity of burning that is necessary to make 
them come close together can do no harm. I have said 
before that a weak thin crust will not bear as much heat as 
a strong one, and that the shoe should be applied less hot 
to it, nevertheless it must be scorched that you may be 
sure the shoe fits properly. 

When you have cooled the shoe, you should " back hole " 
it, that is, make fi'ee openings on the foot surface for the 
nails to pass through 5 and these openings should be large 
enough to take the shanks of the nails and not merely the 
thin part toward their points, and mind that in opening 
them you do not make the holes incline inward, but take 
great care to make them pass straight througli the shoe. 

Before you '' file up " the shoe, hold it firmly in its place 
on the foot with both hands, and examine carefully whether 
any light appears between the foot and the shoe, and if you 
should perceive any, alter the shoe at once ; for the crust 
must bear upon the shoe all round before you can say that 
the shoe fits the foot as it ought to do. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



27 



FILING UP THE SHOE. 

Much time is often wasted in polishing the shoe with the 
file before it is nailed on ; but all that is really needed is to 
remove the burs about the nail holes, file off the sharp 
edges of the shoe and round the heels, taking care to apply 
the file hard to that part of both heels which comes next 




to the frog, so as to slant it from the ground upward away 
from the frog, but you must be careful not to make the 
ground surface of the web at the heels narrower in so 
doing ; Fig. 9 shows the foot surface, and Fig. 10 the 
ground surface of a near fore shoe. 

In Fig. 9 A is the clip at the toe, B 1 the outer quarter, 
B 2 the inner quarter, 1 the outer heel, C 2 the inner heel, 
D the seating, E the flat surface for the crust to bear upon^ 
F the heeis beveled off away from the frog. 



28 



HOESE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



In Fig. 10 A is the toe turned up out of the line of 
wear, B 1 the outer and B 2 the inner quarter, 1 the 
outer and 2 the inner heels, D the ground surface of the 
web, as wide at the heel as it is at the toe, E the fuller 
carried all round the shoe, F the inner quarter and heel 
slightly beveled from the foot to the ground. 



NAILS. 

I must say a few words about the nails before we come 
to nailing on the shoe, because the nails in common use, 
Fig. 11, are as badly formed as they well can be ; their 
short wedge-shaped heads, wide at the top, a, and narrow 

at the bottom, b, with shanks spring- 
ing suddenly from the head without 
any shoulder and ending in a long, 
narrow point, c, are most unsafe to 
trust a shoe to. The head of such 
a nail can never perfectly fill the 
hole in the shoe, for the wide top 
gets tied either in the fuller or the 
upper part of the hole before the 
lower part has reached the bottom, 
and when the shoe is about half 
worn out the head of the nail is 
gone and the shank alone is left in 
the hole to keep the shoe on. Now 
the nails I advise you to use, and 
you had better always make them 
for yourself. Fig. 12, should have 
heads which are straight sided at. the 
upper part, d, and gradually die 
away at the lower part into the shank so as to form a 
shoulder, e, which will entirely block the bottom of the nail 
hole ; the point/ at the end of the shank should be short 
and broad to enable you to form good stout clinches, which 
will assist in keeping the shoe firmly in its place until it is 
quite worn out. 




Fig. 11. Fig. 12. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 29 

If you compare the head of the nail, Fig. 12, at d and e 
with the head of the nail Fig. 11 at a and 5, you will at 
once see that the head of Fig. 12 is better calculated to fill 
every part of the nail hole than the head of Fig. 11 with 
its broad top and narrow neck could possibly do ; and if 
you compare the points of the two nails at /and c you will 
readily perceive which promises the firmer clinch. \ 

Your nails should be made of the very best nail rods you" 
can get, and they should not be cooled too quickly, but left 
spread about to cool by degrees ; the longer in reason they 
are cooling, the tougher they will become ; they should not 
however be allowed to lie in a heap to cool, the mass keeps 
in the heat too long and makes them almost as brittle as if 
they had been cooled too suddenly. 



NAILING ON THE SHOE. 

If the nails are of a proper shape, the holes straight 
through the shoe, and the shoe fits the foot, it requires very 
little skill to nail it on ; only put the point of the nail in 
the middle of the hole, keep the nail upright, and drive it 
straight, it must come out in the right place, low down in 
the crust, without the possibility of wounding the sensitive 
parts of the foot. ' The shank of the nail will pass straight 
through the substance of the crust, and gain a good, firm 
hold of it, leaving you the strongest part, from which to 
form a clinch. The clinches should be short and broad, 
and notttiiuned by rasping away any of their substance, but 
hammered at once into a slight notch made in the hoof 
under each ; and the rasp should never be allowed to go 
over them after they have been hammered down, for the 
sharp steel rasp is almost sure to cut through the soft iron 
clinch just where it turns down and leave the appearance 
of a clinch, when in truth it has been cut ofi" at the bend, 
and the loose end only remains buried in the notch in the 
hoof. You will do good by rasping below the clinches, 
because you will thereby remove the broken horn that the 
former nails have destroyed j but on no account ever use 



30 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



the rasp above the clinches, if you do you will tear off the 
thiu outer covering of the hoof which is placed there to pre- 
vent the escape of the natural moisture and to Iveep the 
horn tough, and if you rasp it away you will expose the 
horn to the air and it will soon become dry and brittle and 
make the hoof difficult to nail to. This thin covering of 
the hoof is like the shining covering of a man's finger nail j 




Fig. 13. 

and most people know from experience how dry and brittle 
and easily broken a finger nail becomes when by accident 
it loses that covering. 

Fig. 13 represents the ground surface of a near fore foot 
with the shoe nailed on by five nails, and shows how the 
shoe should look in its place on the foot ; Fig. 14 repre- 
presents the same shoe made transparent, so that the parts 
of the foot that are covered by it are seen through it. A 
shows the crust B the bars, and the heels of the hoof 
supported by the shoe. By this plan of shoeing the whole 



HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 



31 



of the inner quarter and heel are left free to expand, and I 
have invariably found in consequence of this freedom of ex- 
pansion, that corns, however long* they may have existed in 
the feet, disappear altogether after a horse has been shod a 
few times in this manner, and never return while the same 
plan of shoeing is continued. 

I may here observe that the nature of a corn in a horse's 




Fig, 14. 

foot is very little understood. It is generally supposed to 
resemble a corn on a man's foot, and like it to be caused 
by pressure from a shoe, whereas it is a totally different 
thing, and is caused in a totally different manner. It is a 
bruise of the sensitive sole w^hich lies above the horny sole, 
and is not caused by the heel of the shoe at all, but by the 
heel of the coffin bone which is forced into the hoof by the 
weight of the horse when in action, and as the hoof from 
bad shoeing is not able to expand and malie room for it, 
some of the small blood vessels become wounded and the 
blood which escapes from them filters through the horny 



32 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

sole and at last shows itself on its under surface at the cor- 
ner of the inner heel, leading most persons to believe that 
the bruise began there, whereas in truth it ends there. 



SHOEING WITH LEATHER. 

Many tender footed horses travel best with a covering 
over the sole, and leather is commonly used for the purpose. 
In former editions of my book I recommended gutta percha 
and waterproofed felt as being far preferable to leather in 
consequence of their power of resisting wet, and thereby 
retaining their form under every change of circumstance j 
but I am sorry to say that the gutta percha of com- 
merce is now so badly adulterated as to be utterly use- 
less for horseshoeing purposes, and waterproofed felt, such 
as I formerly used, is no longer to be procured. I have 
endeavored to find some other substitute, but hitherto with- 
out success, and I am obliged to submit to using leather 
in spite of its defects, which are certainly great ; for when 
it is wetted it becomes soft and heavy and yielding, but in 
drying again it contracts and hardens, causing frequent 
changes of pressure which are very undesirable qualities in 
the covering for a horse's frog 5 still whatever covering you 
use must be put on the same way, so I will at once tell you 
how to do it. You must fit the shoe to the foot with as 
much care as if nothing were to be put under it, and when 
it is filed up and ready to be put on, lay it with the foot 
surface downward on the covering whatever it may be, 
and mark the form of the shoe upon it with the end of the 
drawing knife, then cut the piece out, put it in its place 
upon the shoe and fix them both in the vice, which will 
hold them close together while you carefully cut the edge 
of the covering until it agrees with the edge of the shoe, 
then turn them in the vice together so as to bring the heels 
of the shoe uppermost, and cut out a piece from heel to heel, 
sliglitly curved downward in the center that nothing may 
be left projecting for the ground to lay hold of. The next 
thing to be done is to smear the whole of the under surface 



HOESE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



33 



of the foot with common tar mixed with a little grease, but 
be sm-e that you never use gas tar instead of the other, 
for it dries up the horn and makes it ac hard as flint, whereas 
common tar keeps it moist and tough ; then you must fill 
the hollow between the frog and the crust on both sides 
with oakum (which is better for the purpose than tow) 




Fig. 15. 

dipped in the tar, pressing it well into the hollow until the 
mass rises above the level of the frog on each side, but 
never put any oakum upon the frog itself excepting a piece 
in the cleft to prevent the dirt and girt working in ; very 
little is ever wanted on the sole in front of the frog. The 
use of the oakum is to protect the foot, but more especially 
the navicular joint, which lies above and across the frog, 
from being jarred Joy stones on a hard road, and the best 
way of doing this is to fill the space on each side of the frog 
with oakum in such a manner that it shall share the pres- 
sure with the frog and prevent the full force of the shock 
from falling on the navicular joint. 



34 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



The usual mode of stopping a foot is to place a thick 
wad of tow over the whole surface of the sole and frog, 
making bad worse by adding to the projection of the frog, 
and causing it to meet the ground sooner and receive the 
full force of the jar. 

Fig. 15 shows a foot properly stopped and ready for shoe- 




Fig. 16. 

ing. The ends of the oakum that is placed in the cleft of 
the frog, are collected together and carried across the body 
of the frog, to be mixed with the oakum on one side, which 
keeps it in its place in the cleft and prevents it working out 
behind. 

You must now nail on the shoe with five nails, exactly 
as you would do if there was nothing under it, and if you 
have attended to the fitting there will be no fear of the shoe 
shifting or coming off". 

Fig. 16 shows a foot properly shod with leather, and also 
the shape to which the leather should be cut between the 
heels of the shoe. 



HORSE SHOEES' MANUAL. 35 



THE HIND SHOE. 

The hind shoe, like the fore shoe, should be brouglit in 
at the heels and be made to follow the exact shape of the 
hoof J but as the weight of the horse falls differently on the 
hind feet to what it does on the fore feet, and as the rider 
often obliges the horse to stop suddenly and without warn- 
ing, when he is least prepared to do so, it becomes neces- 
sary to guard against strains of the hock and back sinews 
by raising the heels of the shoe, but this should be done in 
such a manner as will give both heels an even bearing on 
the ground. Calkins may be, and I believe are, useful to 
heavy draught horses, but they are objectionable for fast 
work J and turning down the outside heel alone should 
never be done, it throws the weight upon the inner quarter, 
which is the least able to bear it, and strains the fetlock 
joint. The plan I have adopted for many years is to have 
the last inch and a half toward the heel forged deeper and 
thicker than any other part of the shoe, the heels are then 
made red hot and the shoe is put in the vice with the hot 
heels projecting, which are beaten down with a hammer until 
they are about an inch long, and then the sides are made 
even and the foot and ground surfaces level on the anvil. 
I have found horses travel pleasanter and receive less 
damage to their hocks, back sinews and fetlock joints with 
these heels to their hind shoes than they have with any 
others that I have tried. 

The toe of the hind shoe is exposed to great wear, and 
should be made stout and thick and rather pointed, with a 
small clip in the middle to prevent the shoe from being 
driven backward, and the back edge of the web should be 
rounded off to guard against over reach. The toe should 
rest fairly on the ground, to enable the horse to get a 
good purchase for throwing his weight forward. It is a 
bad plan to make the toe broad and to place clips at the 
side of it ; it is nearly certain to cause the very evil it was 
intended to prevent, by making the horse " forge " as it is 
called. 

Many persons think that '^ forging " is caused by the 



36 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



front of the toe of the hind shoe striking against the heel 
of the fore shoe, but that is a mistake; the sound is pro- 
duced in this way : when the horse raises his fore foot from 
the ground and does not instantly throw it forward but 
dwells in the action, the hind foot following quickly is forced 
into the opening of the fore shoe before the fore foot gets 
out of the way, and the corners of the broad toe, made still 
broader by the clips at the sides, are struck against the inner 
rim of the web of the fore shoe on each side just behind 
the quarters, and cause the unpleasant clicking sound. 
The way to avoid this disagreeable noise is to make the 
hind shoe narrow at the toe and rather pointed with a small 
clip in the center, and to leave the hoof projecting beyond 
the shoe across the toe ; then the projecting horn of the 
hind foot will enter the opening of the fore shoe held up to 
receive it, and be stopped by the sole or frog before any 
part of the two shoes can come together, and the noise will 
cease. 

I have said that yon should round off the back edge of 




Fig. 17. 

the web at the toe to prevent an over reach. It is com- 
monly supposed that this also is done by the front of the 
toe, whereas it is always done by the back edge, which, in 
a well worn shoe, becomes as sharp as a knife. Now if the 
horse in galloping does not lift his fore foot from the ground 
and throw it forward in time to make way for the hind foot, 
the hind foot over reaches it and cuts a piece out of the soft 
parts above the heel and produces a very troublesome 
wound. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



37 



The hind foot expands less than the fore foot, still you 
should place the nail holes so as not to confine the foot. 
For some years I shod my light horses as an experiment 
with only six nails in each hind shoe, and I found it to 
answer very well for them, but six were not enough to pre- 
vent the hind shoes of my large carnage horses from occa- 




sionally shifting on their feet ; I therefore shod them with 
seven, and I recommend you as a general rule to put seven 
nails into the hind shoes of all hunters and other horses 
that are likely to be frequently called upon to exert the 
musculai' powers of tiieir hind quarters to their fhllest ex- 



38 HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 

tent. The holes on the inside should be stamped closer 
together than those on the outside, and they should be 
placed forward toward the toe so as leave the inside quarter 
and heel free to expand. A small foot can be safely shod 
with six nailSj and no foot can ever require more than seven. 

Fig. 17 represents the side view of a near hind shoe with 
the foot surface uppermost, showing a level portion for the 
crust to rest upon, the heels i^eing raised in the manner I 
have described above, and the toe made stout and pointed 
with a small clip in the center. 

Fig. 18 shows the ground surface of a near hind shoe 
with the toe rather pointed and the back edge rounded, and 
the nail holes properly placed when the foot is large enough 
to require seven. 



CUTTING. 

Horses strike their feet against the opposite leg in such a 
variety of ways both before and behind, that it is impos- 
sible to form a shoe that would suit every case of " cut- 
ting ;" I therefore advise you, whether the horse cuts before 
or behind, to fasten something like a boot, covered thickly 
with wetted pipeclay, over the place where he strikes the 
leg, and then trot him along the road ; he will soon pick off 
some of the pipeclay with the opposite foot, and show you 
the exact part of the shoe he strikes with, which you can 
easily alter in the new shoe ; and you will often be surpris- 
ed to see how small a matter causes the mischief. 



REMOVING. 



The time at which a horse^s shoes should be removed, 
must depend very much upon circumstances. If a horse 
wears his shoes out in less than a month, they had better 
not be removed ; and horses with thin, weak horn, which 
grows slowly, are likewise better left alone between each 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 39 

shoeing, unless their shoes last seven or eight weeks, in 
which case they should be removed once within the time ; 
but horses with strong feet, and plenty of horn, that wear 
their shoes four or five weeks, should have them removed 
at the end of a fortnight ; and when the horses are doing 
so little work, or wear their shoes so lightly that they last 
over two months, they should be removed every two or three 
weeks, and at the second removal the shoes should be put 
in the fire, and refitted, or the feet will out-grow the shoes, 
as the horn grows much quicker when a horse is idle than 
it does when he is in full work. 

Having now gone carefully through all the circumstances 
necessary to good shoeing, and stated the reasons why cer- 
tain things should ahvays be done, and certain other things 
never done, I will repeat shortly the few things which «re 
to he done, in the order in which tliey occur, and you will 
find that they are really very few, when separated from the 
reasons and explanations. 

Raise the clinches with the buffer. 

Have only one foot bare at a time. 

Pare out the foot j but leave the frog alone. 

Cut off the heels of the shoe, as 1 have directed. 

Open the nail holes straight through the shoe. 

Form a clip at the toe, and turn up the toe of the shoe. 

Fit the shoe with great care to the toe, quarters and 
heels. 

Heat the shoe, and apply it to the foot, to see that the 
crast has a fair bearing upon it. 

Cool the shoe, " back hole " it, and file it up. 

Nail it on with five nails, coming out low in the crust. 

Hammer down the clinches without rasping them, and 
only rasp the hoof below them. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



I have said that five nails are sufficient to hold on a fore 
shoe at any kind of work, in any country and at any pace, 
and I again advise you to employ that number, placing 



40 HORSE SHOBRS' MANUAL. 

three on the outside of the shoe, and two on the inside, be- 
cause I know from experience that with the very common- 
est care on the part of the smith, they will hold a shoe 
through any difficulty of ground or pace, but I am prepared 
to prove that they are more than sufficient for the purpose, 
and to show that many smiths can and do keep on a fore 
shoe by three nails only, two placed on the outside and one 
on the inside. 

For sixteen years I never, in a single instance, had more 
then three nails in the fore shoe of any one of my six horses, 
and they have all been shod with leather, or some other 
covering to the sole duriug the whole time ; some of them 
did not particularly require it, but having commenced it as 
an experiment, and finding no inconvenience from it, I have 
gone on with it, even with a carriage horse, which has 
grown to rather more than seventeen hands high, and he too 
has continued to carry his shoes, leather and all, quite safe- 
ly with only three nails in each fore shoe during the four 
years that he has been in my possession. 

Cases are recorded of horses having done a variety of 
work with only three nails in each fore shoe ; and I will 
now add another wliich happened to a horse of my own, 
which ought to set the question at rest, supposing auy doubt 
still to exist as to the capability of three nails to hold a 
shoe. The horse was twenty-eight years old at the time ; 
he was a high stepper, and impetuous in company, and had 
large flat feet which grew horn very sparingly, so that it 
was quite necessary to protect his feet by a stout shoe with 
leather and stopping under it. He happened to be a par- 
ticularly good lady's horse for one who had plenty of nerve 
and could ride well, and I lent him to join in a large riding 
party of ladies and gentlemen on a visit at a friend's house, 
who took long daily rides in a very hilly district regardless 
of pace, over commons covered with heath, furze and stcyies, 
through rough stony lanes and in every variety of ground, 
and although his shoes had been on ten days when I sent 
him away he returned to me at the end of five weeks with 
his shoe worn out certainly, but firm on his feet and the 
clinches all close. I mention this last circumstance be- 
cause it is a proof that his shoes had been put on with pro- 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 41 

per care ; for whenever you find a clinch rise you may be 
certain that you have done something wrong ; either the 
crust did not bear upon the shoe all round or the nail holes 
did not pass straight through the shoe, or the heads of the 
nails did not fill the bottom of the holes ; any one of these 
things may cause a clinch to raise, and a risen clinch is a 
sure sign of careless shoeing. 

I may mention as further proof of the suflficiency of three 
nails to keep on a shoe, that Major General Key, when in 
command of the 15th Hussars, stationed at Exeter, England, 
thu'teen years ago, had four horses shod with three nails 
only in each fore shoe. Finding how many horses were 
shod he was induced to try the plan upon his, and felt so 
satisfied with the result that he immediately had the others 
similarly shod ; and an officer in the Prussian hussars wrote 
me that his horses also were shod with three nails only in 
each fore shoe, and that he found no difficulty whatever in 
keeping their shoes on. 

But in order still further to test the power of three nails 
to hold a shoe, I obtained permission of a builder to have 
one of his horses, which was employed in drawing heavy 
building materials through a deep clay meadow, shod with 
three nails only in each fore shoe. The horse in question 
was fifteen hands three and a half inches high, and the 
shoes that were put on him were common wagon horse 
shoes with stamped holes and no fullering, and each shoe 
weighed one pound fourteen ounces, and he carried them 
safely for a month notwithstanding the heavy loads he daily 
drew through the deep, clinging clay in which he worked. 

I could state several other cases of successful shoeing 
with three nails if it were necessary, but as I have no inten- 
tion of recommending you to trust to such slender fastening 
as your general plan of shoeing, I may content myself with 
those which I have already recorded ; nevertheless I would 
advise you not to be perfectly satisfied with yourself until 
you have tried your hand at keeping on some shoes by three 
nails only ; because a bad fitter cannot do it, but a good fit- 
ter always can. The principal use of such an experiment 
will be to show you, that you may safely leave out one or 
even two nails in a case of broken crust, or a " shaky " place. 



42 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

or indeed whenever from any cause you may think it desir- 
able to do so- 

I thiuk I have proved beyond dispute that afore shoe- 
can be kept on by three nails, therefore he must be a sorry 
bungler indeed who cannot manage it with five. 

Although I have nothing new to offer, and nothing to 
alter as regards the principles of Horse Shoeing, which I 
have endeavored to inculcate in the preceding editions of 
my book, I considered that it would not be altogether un- 
interesting to those whose fears still deter them from adopt- 
ing it, if in putting forth another edition I recorded some 
few of the confirmatory results of the further experience 
since the former editions were published, but more especially 
those derived from the hunting field toward the close of 
such a season as 1860, marked as it was by an unprecedented 
quantity of wet, which rendered the country heavier and 
deeper and more trying to the security of horses' shoes, than 
any that had preceded it for several years. I found on re- 
ferring to the register kept at the Devon and Exeter Insti- 
tution, that the quantity of rain which fell during the three 
months of November, December, and January of that winter, 
amounted to llj inches, while the average for the same 
three months of the preceding five years showed less than 
half that quantity, the amount being only 5 J inches. 

It may perhaps suffice without enumerating all the horses 
which had carried their shoes safely through that season 
with five nails, if I confine my remarks to four belonging to 
two gentlemen who are both above the average weight, and 
one cf them considerably above the average hight of their 
compeers ; they are both good men across country, ride well 
to hounds and are always to be found in the best places dur- 
ing a run ; one of them had shod his horses on my plan for 
four or five years, relieving their feet occasionally in the 
summer by omitting two of the five nails ; he therefore had 
no fears, and was not at all surprised that he had lost no 
shoes ; but the other to whom it was an experiment, showed 
great misgiving at first, but two or three shoeings convinced 
him that his fears were groundless, and he has now more con- 
fidence in five nails, than he had a jear before in seven or 
eight ; because then the loss of a shoe was no uncommon 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 43 

thing with him, whereas now the thought of such an occur- 
rence never enters his head. The first horse he asked 
me to see shod for him, is one that has gained for himself a 
high character in Ireland as a steeple chase horse, and I 
must say that his legs bore ample testimony to their famil- 
iarity with stone walls, they were perfectly round and dis- 
figured by sundry bony lumps ; nevertheless his owner had 
given a large price for him. He is a powerful lasting horse, 
and is not to be stopped by a six foot wall. When I saw 
him first he was very badly shod, and had seven nails in 
each foro shoe, which clearly had a good deal to do with the 
weak horn and round legs he possessed at that time ,• for 
very soon after his feet had been freed from the confinement 
caused by the inside nails, nis legs became less round, al- 
though he had been regulany hunted in turn with the other 
horses ; and at the third shoeing the suspensary ligaments 
could be distinctly traced by the finger, and some weeks 
afterward when I next saw him shod, they were perfectly 
visible and his legs had become almost flat 5 he had more- 
over a very fair quantity ot dead hora in his feet, showing 
that the growth of horn had begun to increase, which at 
previous shoeings had been very deficient ; and I had no 
doubt when the hunting season was quite over, that the re- 
lief afi"orded by the withdrawal of two nails, would cause 
very considerable further improvement both in his legs and 
feet. But the most satisfactory result of the season was 
furnished by the other horse belonging to the same gentle- 
man, which he had regularly ridden in turn with the one 
above mentioned ; this horse, although undeniable in the 
hunting field, had large flat brittle feet, which made riding 
him in some places rather nervous work, and I recommended 
his owner to try him with five nails and leather, and after 
indulging in the expression of numerous doubts and fears he 
consented, provided I would see it done, which of course I 
did, and great was his relief at the end of the first day to 
find that his horse had not only carried him more pleasantly 
than usual through very deep ground, but that he had 
brought his shoes home safe and unmoved on his feet ; this 
gave him confidence and he continued to hunt him in leath- 
er secured l)y five nails ; and he told me that he verily be- 



44 HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 

lieved the horse had scarcely ever been less than fetlock 
deep during any day he was out in the preceding three 
months, frequently knee deep, and on the day previous to 
our conversation he was bogged up to his tail, but he had not 
lost a shoe and he would not take double the money that he 
oflfered to sell him for in the early part of the season. 

I will add one other case for the purpose of showing the 
amount of relief, that was obtained from the removal of one 
nail from the inner quarter of each fore foot of an old thorough 
bred hunter, which one of the above named gentlemen had 
purchased in the early part of the season. He was the 
very beau ideal of what a weight carrying hunter should be ; 
perfect master of his business and well known in most of the 
best hunting counties in England; but time and hard work 
had somewhat told on him, and prevented his recovering 
the effects of a severe day quite as readily as he used to do 
in times past. All this my friend was fully prepared for, 
but he was not prepared for the state in which he found him 
on the morning after the first severe day he had encounter- 
ed ] and he begged me to come and look at his " poor horse" 
with him, which I did and it has rarely fallen to my lot to 
behold a more pitiable object than that poor beast presented ; 
he was standing in the middle of his box apparently unable 
and most unquestionably unwilling to move ; his fore legs 
slightly separated, to prevent the weight of his forehand 
falling in a direct line on his feet, and his head and neck 
considerably lowered for the same purpose. It was at once 
evident to me that his distress arose from pain in the feet ; I 
aslied my friend how he was shod, and he told me that he 
had not looked at his shoes, thinking they must be all right 
as he came to him direct from a hunting stable ; but I did 
not feel quite so sure that they were all right, so I examined 
his hoofs as he stood and found a nail placed far back in the 
inner quarter of each fore foot ; I immediately sent for the 
smith and had the clinches of the two offending nails cut 
off, and the nails partly punched out wiiile his feet were 
still on the ground, but before they could be entirely with- 
drawn from the shoes, it became necessary to raise each foot 
which was a difficult matter, for he would have submitted 
to be pushed over rather than attempt to rest his weight on 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 45 

one foot only ; however, by supporting him well on the 
other side it was accomplished, and the back nail of each 
foot removed. I visited him again in about three hours, 
and I confess I was astonished to find him quietly feeding, 
and evincing no indisposition to move to either side, or even 
to turn about when I required him to do so ; the character 
of his expression was changed, and he did not look like the 
same horse. 

On the following morning he was walked out for exercise, 
and on the second day I saw his old shoes taken off*andnew 
ones put on, secured by five nails without his having shown 
the smallest uneasiness ; but when my friend mentioned the 
circumstance to a gentleman, who had hunted regularly 
from his boyhood and really knows a great deal about it, he 
strongly advised him against hunting with only five nails ; 
he said it might do in the stable or at exercise, but it would 
not do with hounds, My friend, however, took a difi'erent 
view of the matter ; for having witnessed the relief which 
was obtained in so short a time from the removal of those 
two nails, while the hor^e was standiug still in the stable, 
he wisely concluded that their presence in the shoe^ during 
a severe run must have been very inconvenient, to say the 
least of it ; and he therefore determined to shoe him with 
only five nails for the future, and never again saw him more 
distressed on the morning after a hard day, than any other 
horse would have been under similar circumstances. 

NAILING ON THE SHOE. 



/ 

YOUAH OJf DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 



INFLAMMATION OF FOOT— ACUTE FOUNDER 

The sensible laminse, or fleshy plates on the front and 
sides of the coffin-bone, being replete with blood-vessels, 
are like every other vascular (filled with blood vessels) part, 
liable to inflammation, from its usual causes, and particu- 
larly from the violence with which, in rapid and long con- 
tinued action, these parts are strained and bruised. When 
battered and bruised by severe races or journeys, it will be 
no wonder if inflammation of the over-worked parts should 
ensue ; and the occurrence of it may probably be produced, 
and th^e disease aggravated by the too prevalent absurd 
mode of treating the animal. If a horse that has been rid- 
den or driven hard i3 suffered to stand in the cold, or if his 
feet are washed and not speedily dried, he is very likely to 
have " fever in the feet." There is no more fruitful source 
of inflammation in the human being, or the brute, than these 
sudden changes of temperature. The danger is not confined 
to change from heat to cold. Sudden transition from cold 
to heat is as injurious, and therefore it is that so many horses, 
after having been ridden far in frost and snow, and placed 
immediately in a hot stable, and littered up to the knees, are 
attacked by this malady. 

Sometimes there is a sudden change of inflammation from 
one organ to another. A horse may have labored for several 
days under evident inflammation of the lungs ; all at once 
that will subside, and the disease will appear in the feet, or 
inflammation of the feet may follow similar affections in 
the bowels or the eyes. In case of severe inflammation of the 
lungs, it may not be bad practice to remove the shoes and 
poultice the feet. 



nORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 47 

To the attentive observer the symptoms are clearly 
markedj and yet there is no disease so often overlooked by 
the groom and the carter, and even by the veterinary sur- 
geon. The disease may assume an acute or chronic form. 
The earliest symptoms of fever in the feet are fidgetiness, 
frequent shifting of the fore-legs, but no pawing, much less 
any attempt to reach the belly with the hind feet. The 
pulse is quickened, the flanks heaving, the nostrils red, and 
the horse, by his anxious countenance, and possibly moan- 
ing, indicating great pain. Presently he looks a^>out his 
litter, as if preparing to lie down, but he does not do so im- 
mediately ; he continues to shift his weight from foot to foot ; 
he is afraid to draw his feet sufficiently under him for the 
purpose of lying down ; but at length he drops. The cir- 
cumstance of his lying down at an early period of the disease 
will sufficiently distinguish inflammation of the feet from 
that of the lungs, in which the horse obstinately persists in 
standing until he drops from mere exhaustion. His quiet- 
ness when down will distinguish it from colic or inflamma- 
tion of the bowels, in both of which the horse is up and 
down, and frequently rolling and kicking when down. 
When the grievance is in the feet, the horse experiences so 
much relief from getting rid of the weight painfully distend- 
ing the inflamed and highly sensible laminse, that he is 
glad to lie as long as he can. He will likewise, as clearly 
as in inflammation of the lungs or bowels, point out the seat 
of disease by looking at the part. His muzzle will often 
rest on the feet or the afibcted foot. He must be inatten- 
tive who is not aware of what all this indicates. 

If the feet are now examined, they will be found evident- 
ly hot. The patient will express pain if they are slightly 
rapped with a hammer, and the artery at the pastern will 
throb violently. No great time will now pass, if the disease 
is suff'ered to pursue its course, before he will be perfectly 
unable to rise ; or, if he is forced to get up, and one foot is 
lifted, he will stand with difficulty on the other, or perhaps 
drop at once from intensity of pain. 

The treatment will resemble that of other inflammations, 
(see concluding paragraph under ^' Chronic Founder,") with 
such differences as the situation of the disease suggests. 



48 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

Bleeding is indispensable ; and that to its fullest extent. 
If the disease is confined to the forefeet, four quarts of 
blood should be taken as soon as possible from the toe of 
each, and in the manner already described ; care being taken 
to open the artery as well as the vein. The feet may like- 
wise be put into warm water, to quicken the flow of the 
blood, and increase the quantity abstracted. Poultices of 
linseed meal made very soft, should cover the whole of the 
foot and pastern, and be frequently renewed, which will 
promote evaporation from the neighboring parts, and possi- 
bly through the pores of the hoof, and by softening and 
rendering supple the hoof, will relieve its painful pressure 
on the swelled and tender parts beneath. More fully to 
accomplish this last purpose, the shoe should be removed, 
the sole pared as thin as possible, and the crust, and par- 
ticularly the quarters, well rasped. All this must be done 
gently and with a great deal of patience, for the poor animal 
can scarcely bear his feet to be meddled with. There used 
to be occasional doubt as to the administration of physic, 
from fear of metastasis (shifting) of inflammation which has 
sometimes occurred, and been generally fatal. When, how- 
ever, there is so much danger of losing the patient from the 
original attack, we must run the risk of the other. Sedative 
and cooling medicines should be diligently administered, 
consisting of digitalis, nitre, and emetic tartar. 

If no amendment is observed, three quarts of blood should 
be taken from each foot on the following day. In extreme 
cases, a third bleeding of two quarts may be justified, and, 
instead of the poultice, cloths kept wet with water in which 
nitre has been dissolved immediately before, and in the pro- 
portion of an ounce of nitre to a pound of water, may be 
wrapped round the feet. About the third day a blister may 
be tried, taking in the whole of the pastern and the coronet ; 
but a cradle must previously be put on the neck of the 
horse, and the feet must be covered after the blister^ or they 
will probably be sadly blemished. The horse should be 
kept on mash diet, unless green meat can be procured for him; 
and even that should not be given too liberally, nor should 
he, in the slightest degree, be coaxed to eat. When he ap- 
pears to be recovering, his getting on his feet should not be 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 49 

hurried. It should be left perfectly to his own discretion ; 
nor should even walking exercise be permitted until he stands 
firm on his feet. When that is the case, and the season 
will permit, two months' run at grass will be very service- 
able. 

It is not always, however, or often that inflammation of 
the feet is thus easily subdued ; and, if it is subdued, it 
sometimes leaves after it some fearful consequences. The 
loss of the hoof is not an unfrequent one. About six or 
seven days from the first attack, a slight separation will be- 
gin to appear between the coronet and the hoof. This 
should be carefully attended to, for the separated horn will 
never again unite with the parts beneath, but the disunion 
will extend, and the hoof will be lost. It is true that a 
new hoof will be formed, but it will be smaller in size, and 
weaker than the first, and will rarely stand hard work. 
When this separation is observed, it will be a matter of 
calculation with the proprietor of the horse whether he will 
suffer the medical treatment to proceed. 



CHRONIC FOUNDER. 

This is a species of founder insidious in its attack, and 
destructive to the horse. It is a milder form of the pre- 
ceding disease. There is lameness, but it is not so severe 
as in the former case. The horse stands as usual. The 
crust is warm, and that warmth is constant, but is not 
often probably greater than in a state of health. The 
surest symptom is the action of the animal. It is dia- 
metrically opposite to that in the navicular disease. The 
horse throws as much of his weight as he can on the poste- 
rior parts of his feet. 

The treatment should be similar to that recommended 
for the acute disease — blood letting, poultices, fomenta- 
tions and blisters, and the last much sooner and much more 
frequently than in the former disease. 



50 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 



PUMICED FEET. 

The sensible and horny little plates which were elonga- 
ted and partially separated during the intensity of the in- 
flammation of founder, will not always perfectly unite again, 
or will have lost much of their elasticity, and the coffin- 
bone, no longer fully supported by them, presses upon the 
sole, and the sole becomes flattened, or convex, from this 
unnatural weight, and the horse acquires a pumiced foot. 
This will also happen when the animal is used too soon 
after an attack of inflammation of the feet, and before the 
laminae have regained sufficient strength to support the 
weight of the horse, or to contract again by their elastic 
power when they have yielded to the weight. When the 
coffin-bone is thus thrown on the sole, and renders it pum- 
iced, the crust at the front of the hoof will ^^fall in^'' leav- 
ing a kind of hollow about the middle of it. 

Pumiced feet, especially in horses with large, wide feet, 
are frequently produced without this acute inflammation. 
Undue work, and especially much battering of the feet on 
the pavement, will extend and sprain these laminee so much 
that they will not have the power to contract, and thus the 
coffin-bone will be thrown backward on the sole. A very 
important law of nature will unfortunately be soon active 
here. When pressure is applied to any part, the absorb- 
ents become busy in removing it ; so, when the coffin-bone 
begins to press upon the sole, the sole becomes thin from 
the increased wear and tear to which it is subjected by 
contact with the ground, and also because these absorbents 
are rapidly taking it away. 

This is one of the diseases of the feet for which there is 
no cure. No skill is competent to efiect a reunion between 
the separated fleshy and horny laminae, or to restore to 
them the strength and elasticity of which they have been 
deprived, or to take up that hard, horny substance which 
speedily fills the space between the crust and the receding 
coffin-bone. 

All that can be done in the way of palliation is by shoe- 
ing. Nothing must press on the projecting and pumiced 



HORSE SHOERS^ MANFAL. 51 

part. If the projection is not considerable, a thick bar- 
shoe is the best thing that can be applied j but should this 
sole have much descended, a slioe with a very wide web, 
bevelled off so as not to press on the part, may be used. 
These means of relief, however, are only temporary, the 
disease will proceed j and at no great distance of time the 
horse will be useless. 



CONTRACTION. 

It must- be premised that there is a great deal more hor- 
ror of contracted heels than there is occasion for. Many 
persons reject a horse at once if the quarters are iviringin; 
but the fact is, that although this is an unnatural foinn of 
the hoof, it is slow of growth, and nature kindly makes 
that provision for the slowly altered form of the hoof which 
she does in similar cases — she accommodates the parts to 
the change of form. As the hoof draws in, the parts be- 
neath, and particularly the coffin-bone, and especially the 
heels of that bone diminish ; or, after all, it is more a 
change of form than of capacity. As the foot lengthens in 
proportion as it narrows, so does the coffin-bone, and it is 
as perfectly adjusted as before to the box in which it is 
placed. Its laminae are in as intimate and perfect union 
with those of the crust as before the hoof had begun to 
change. On this account it is that many horses, with very 
contracted feet, are perfectly sound, and no horse should 
be rejected merely because he has contraction. He should 
undoubtedly be examined more carefully, and with consid- 
erable suspicion ; but if he has good action, and is other- 
wise unexceptional, there is no reason that the purchase 
should not be made. A horse with contracted feet, if he 
goes sound, is better than another with open but weak 
heels. 

The opinion is perfectly erroneous that contraction is the 
necessary consequence of shoeing. There can be no doubt 
that an inflexible iron ring being nailed to the foot prevents, 
to a very considerable degree, the descent of the sole and 



52 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

the expansion of the heels below ; and it is likewise proba- 
ble that when the expansion of the heels is prevented, they 
often begin to contract. But here, as before stated, nature 
malies provision for the change. Some gentlemen who are 
careful of their horses have driven them twenty years, and 
principally over the rough pavement of towns, without a 
day's lameness. Shoeing may be a necessary evil, but it is 
not the evil which many speculative persons have sup- 
posed it, and, notwithstanding its effects, the foot ordina- 
rily lasts longer than the legs ; nay, horsemen tell us that 
one pair of good feet is worth two pairs of legs. 

There is nothing in the appearance of the feet which 
would enable us to decide when contraction is or is not de- 
structive to the usefulness of the animal ; his manner of 
going, and his capability for work, must be oar guides. 
Lameness usually accompanies the beginning of contrac- 
tion ; it is the invariable attendant on rapid contraction, 
but it does not always exist when the tvirlng in is slow, or 
of long standing. 

A very excellent writer, particularly when treating of 
the foot of the horse, Mr. Blaine, has given us a long and 
correct list of the causes of injurious contraction, and most 
of them are, fortunately, under the control of the owner of 
the animal. He places at the head of them, neglect of 
paring. The hoof is continually growing, the crust is 
lengthening, and the sole is thickening. This is a provis- 
ion for the wear and tear of the foot in an unshod state j 
but when it is protected by a shoe, and none of the horn 
can be worn away by coming in . contact with the ground, 
and the growth of horn continues, the hoof grows high, and 
the sole gets thick, and, in consequence of this, the descent 
of the sole and the expansion of the heels are prevented, 
and contraction is the result. The smith might lessen, if 
not prevent the evil, by carefully thinning the sole, and 
lowering the heels at each shoeing ; but the first of these is 
a matter of considerable labor, and the second could not be 
done effectually without being accompanied by the first, 
and, therefore, they are both neglected. Owners should 
often stand by and see that this is properly done. 

Wearing the shoes too long, especially when nails are 



HOESE SHOERS' MANFAL. 53 

placed nearer than they should be to the quarters to make 
the shoes hold, is another cause of contraction. There is 
no rule which admits of so little exception as that, once in 
about every three weeks, the growth of horn which the 
natural wear of the foot cannot get rid of, should be pared 
away — the toe should be shortened in most feet — the sole 
should be thinned, and the heels lowered. Every one who 
has carefully observed the shape of the horse's foot, must 
have seen that in proportion to its hight or neglected 
growth, it contracts and closes round the coronet. A low- 
heeled horse might have other serious defects, of which it 
will be our duty to speak, but he has seldom a contracted 
foot. 

Another source of contraction is the want of natural 
moisture. The hoof of the stable-horse kept from moist- 
ure becomes dry and unelastic, and, consequently, is ren- 
dered more subject to this disease. Hence the propriety of 
stopping the feet where there is the least tendency to con- 
traction. The intelligent and careful groom will not omit 
it a single night. Cowdung, with a small portion of clay 
to give it consistence, is a common and very good stopping. 
A better one is a piece of thick felt, cut to the shape of the 
sole, and soaked in water. The common stopping of tar 
and grease is peculiarly objectionable, for it closes the 
pores of the feet, and ultimately increases the di-yness and 
brittleness which it was designed to remedy. 

Thrushes aid sometimes in producing contraction, but 
they are much oftener the consequence than the cause. 

The removal of the bars takes away a main impediment 
to contraction. Their use in assisting the expansion of the 
foot has been already stated, and should a disposition to 
contraction be produced by any other cause, the cutting 
away of the bars would hasten and aggravate the evil; 
but the loss of the bar would not of itself produce contrac- 
tion. 

The contraction, however, that is connected with perma- 
nent lameness, although increased by the circumstances 
which we have mentioned, usually derives its origin from a 
diflPerent source, and from one that acts violently and sud- 
denly. Inflammation of the little plates covering the cof- 



54 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

fin-bone is the most usual cause ; and a degree of inflam- 
mation not sufficiently intense to be characterized as acute 
founder, but quickly leading to sad results, may, and does 
spring from causes almost unsuspected. Something may 
depend upon the breed. Blood-horses are particularly lia- 
ble to contraction. Not only is the foot naturally small, 
but it is disposed to become narrower at the heels. On 
the other hand, the broad, flat foot of the cart-horse is sub- 
ject to diseases enough, but contraction is seldom one of 
the number. In horses of equal blood, not a little seems 
to depend upon the color, and the dark chestnut is pro- 
verbially prone to contraction. 

Whatever is the cause of that rapid contraction or nar- 
rowing of the heels which is accompanied by severe lame- 
ness, the symptoms may be easily distinguished. While 
standing in the stable, the horse will point with, or place 
forward, the contracted foot; or, if both feet are aficcted, 
he will alternately place one before the other. When he is 
taken out of the stable, his step will be peculiarly short 
and quick, and the feet will be placed gently and tenderly 
on the ground, or scarcely lifted from it in the walk or the 
trot. It would seem as if the slightest irregularity of sur- 
face would throw the animal down, and so it threatens to 
do, for he is constantly tripping and stumbling. If the 
fore-feet are carefully oi3served, one or both of them will be 
narrowed across the quarters and toward the heels. In a 
few cases, the whole of the foot appears to be contracted 
and shrunk ; but in the majority of instances, while the 
heels are narrower, the foot is longer. The contraction 
appears sometimes in both heels : at other times in the 
inner heel only ; or, if both arc affected, the inner one is 
wired in the most, either from the coronet to the base of the 
foot, or only or principally at the coronet — oftener near the 
base of the foot — but in most cases the hollow being 
greatest about mid-way between the coronet and the bot- 
tom of the foot. This irregularity on contraction, and un- 
certainty as to the place of it, prove that it is some internal 
disorganization, the seat of which varies with the portion 
of the attachment between the hoof and the foot that was 
principally strained or injured. In every recent case, the 



HORSE SHOEES' MANUAL. 55 

contracted part will be hotter than the rest of the foot, and 
the sole will, in the majority of cases, be unnaturally con- 
cave. 

Of the treatment of contraction attended with lameness, 
little that is satisfactory ran be said. There have been va- 
rious mechanical contrivances, such as clips of a peculiar 
form,, and a jointed shoe, which, when the foot was softened, 
was gradually pressed asunder at the heels by a screw ; 
but all have proved of no avail, for the disease speedily 
returned when the ordinary shoe was again applied to en- 
able the horse to work, and work was required of him. 

If the action of the horse is not materially impaired, it is 
better to let the contraction alone, be it as great as it will. 
If the contraction has evidently produced considerable 
lameness, the owner of the horse will have to calculate be- 
tween his value, if cured, the expense of the cure, and the 
probability of failure. 

The medical treatment should alone be undertaken by a 
skillful veterinary surgeon, and it will principally consist in 
abating any inflammation that may exist, by local bleeding 
and physic, paring the sole to the utmost extent that it 
will bear ; rasping the quarters as deeply as can be, with- 
out their being too much weakened, or the coronary ring 
at all injured thereby ; rasping deeply likewise at the 
toe, and perhaps scoring at the toe. The horse is after- 
ward made to stand during the day in wet clay, placed in 
one of the stalls. He is at night moved into another stall, 
and his feet bound up thickly in wet cloths 5 or he is 
turned out into wet pasturage, with tips, or, if possible, 
without them, and his feet are frequently pared out, and 
the quarters lightly rasped. In five or six months the horn 
will generally have grown down, when he may be taken 
up, and shod with shoes unattached by nails on the inner 
side of the foot, and put to gentle work. The foot will be 
found very considerably enlarged, and the owner will, per- 
haps, think that the cure is accomplished. The horse may 
possibly, for a time, stand very gentle work, and the inner 
side of the foot being left at liberty, its natural expansive 
process may be resumed : the internal part of the foot, 
however, has not been healthily filled up with the cxpan- 



56 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

sion of the crust. If that expansion has been effected forward 
on the quarters, the crust will no longer be in contact with 
the lengthened and narrowed heels of the coffin-bone. 
There will not be the natural adhesion and strength, and a 
very slight cause, or even the very habit of contraction 
will, in spite of all care and the freedom of the inner quar- 
ter, in very many instances, cause the foot to wire in again 
as badly as before. 



THE NAVICULAR JOINT DISEASE. 

Many horses with well-formed and open feet become 
sadly and permanently lame, and veterinary surgeons have 
been puzzled to discover the cause. The farrier has had 
his convenient explanation, " the shoulder;" but the scien- 
tific practitioner may not have been able to discover an 
ostensible cause of lameness in the whole limb. There is 
no one accustomed to horses who does not recollect an in- 
stance of this. 

Behind and beneath the lower pastern-bone, and behind 
and above the heel of the coffin-bone, is a small bone called 
the navicular or shuttle - bone. It is so placed as to 
strengthen the union between the lower pastern and the 
coffin-bone, and to enable the flexor tendon, which passes 
over it in order to be inserted into the bottom of the coffin- 
bone, to act with more advantage. It forms a kind of 
joint with that tendon. There is a great deal of weight 
thrown on the navicular bone, and from the navicular bone 
on the tendon ; and there is a great deal of motion or play 
between them in the bending and extension of the pastf rns. 

It is very easy to conceive that, from sudden concussion, 
or from rapid and overstrained motion, and that, perhaps, 
after the animal has been some time at rest, and the parts 
have not adapted themselves for motion, there may be too 
iTUch play between the bone and the tendon — the delicate 
membrane which covers the bone, or the cartilage of the 
l)one may be bruised, and inflamed, and destroyed ; that all 
the painful effects of an inflamed and opened joint may en- 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 57 

sue, and the horse be irrecoverably lame. Numerous dis- 
sections have shown that this joint, formed by the tendon 
and the bone, has been the frequent, and the almost invari- 
able seat ot these obscure lamenesses. The membrane 
covering the cartilage of the bone has been found in an ul- 
cerated state ; the cartilage has been ulcerated and eaten 
away ; the bone has become carious or decayed, and bony 
adhesions have taken place between the navicular and the 
pastern and the coffin-bones, and this part of the foot has 
often become completely disorganized and useless. This 
joint is probably the seat of lameness not only in well- 
formed feet, but in those which become lame after contrac- 
tion. 

The cure of navicular disease is difficult and uncertain. 
The first and all-important point is the removal of the in- 
flammation in this very susceptible membrane. Local 
bleeding, poulticing, and physic will be our principal re- 
sources. If there is contraction, this must, if possible, be 
removed by the means already pointed out. If there is no 
contraction, it will nevertheless be prudent to get rid of all 
surrounding pressure, and to unfetter as much as possible 
the inside heel of the coffin-bone, by paring the sole and 
rasping the quarters, and using the shoe without nails on 
the inner quarter, and applying cold poultices to the coro- 
net and the whole of the foot. This is a case, however, 
which must be turned over to the veterinary surgeon, for 
he alone, from his knowledge of the anatomy of the foot, 
and the precise seat of the disease, is competent to treat it. 
If attacked on its earliest appearance, and before ulceration 
of the membrane of the joint has taken place, it may be 
radically cured; but ulceration of the membrane will be 
with difficulty healed, and decay of the bone will forever 
remain. 

Blistering the coronet will often assist in promoting a 
cure by diverting the inflammation to another part, and it 
will materially quicken the growth of the horn. A seton 
passed through the frog by a skillful operator, and ap- 
proaching as nearly as possible to the seat of the disease, 
has been serviceable. 



58 HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 



SAND-CRACfc 



This, as its name imports, is a crack or division of the 
hoof from above downward, and into which sand and dirt 
are too apt to insinuate themselves. It is so called because 
it most frequently occurs in sandy districts, the heat of the 
sand applied to the feet giving them a disposition to crack. 
It occurs both in the fore and the hind feet. In the fore 
feet it is usually found in the inner quarter, but occasion- 
ally in the outer quarter, because there is the principal 
stress or effort toward expansion in the foot, and the inner 
quarter is weaker than the outer. In the hind feet the 
crack is almost invariably found in the front, because in the 
digging of the toe into the ground in the act of drawing, 
the principal stress is in front. 

This is a most serious defect. It indicates a brittleness 
of the crust, sometimes natural, but oftener the consequence 
of mismanagement or disease, which, in spite of every 
means adopted, will probably be the source of future an- 
noyance. On a hoof that has once been thus divided, no 
dependence can be placed, unless, by great care, the natu- 
ral suppleness of the horn has been restored and is retained. 

Sand-crack may happen in an instant, from a false step or 
over-exertion, and therefore a horse, although he may spring 
a sand-crack within an hour after the purchase, cannot be 
returned on that account. 

The crack sometimes does not penetrate through the horn. 
It then causes no lameness ; nevertheless, it must not be 
neglected. It shows that there is brittleness, which should 
induce the purchaser to pause ; and, if proper means are not 
taken, it will generally soon penetrate to the quick. It 
should be pared or rasped fairly out, and, if the paring or 
rasping has been deep, the foot should be strengthened by 
a coating of pitch, with coarse tape bound over it, and a 
second coating of pitch covering this. 

If the crack has penetrated through the crust, and lame- 
ness has ensued, the case is more serious. It must be care- 
fully examined, in order to ascertain that no dirt or sand 
has got into itj the edges must be more considerably 



jaOKSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 59 

thinned, and if any fungus (proud flesh) is beginning to 
protrude through the crack, and is imprisoned there, it 
must be destroyed by the application of the batyr (chloride) 
of antimony. This U preferable to the cautery (hot iion), 
because the edges of the horn will not be thickened or 
roughened, and thus become a source of after-irritation. 
The firing iron must then be run deeply across, above and 
below the crack ; a pledget of dry tow being placed in the 
crack, in and over it, and the whole bound down as tightly 
as possible. On the third day the part should be examined, 
and the caustic again applied, if necessary ; but if the crack 
is dry, and defended by a hard horny crust, the sooner the 
pitch plaster is put on the better. 

The most serious case is, when from tread or neglect, the 
coronet is divided. The growth of horn proceeds from the 
coronary ligament, and unless this ligament is sound, the 
horn will grow down, disunited. The method to be here 
adopted, is to rim the back of the firing iron over the coro- 
net where it is divided. Some inflammation will ensue j 
and when the scab produced by the cautery peels off, as it 
will in a few days, the division will be obliterated, and 
sound and united horn will grow down. When there is 
sufficient horn above the crack, a horizontal line should be 
drawn with a firing iron between the sound horn and the 
crack. The connection between the sound part and the 
crack will thus be prevented, and the new horn will gradu- 
ally and safely descend, but the horse should not be used 
until sufficient horn has grown down fairly to isolate the 
crack. When the' horn is divided at the coronet, it will be 
flve or six months before it will grow fairly down, and not 
before that, should the animal be used even for ordinary 
work. When, however, the horn is grown an inch from the 
coronet, the horse may be turned out — the foot being well 
defended by the pitch plaster, and that renewed as often as 
it becomes loose — a bar-shoe being worn, chambered so as 
not to press upon the hoof immediately under the crack, 
and that shoe being taken ofl", the sole pared out, and any 
bulbous projection of new horn being removed once in every 
three weeks. 

To remedy the undue brittleness of the hoof, there is no 



60 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL, 

better application than that recommended in page 48^ the 
sole being covered at the same time with the common cow 
dung or felt stopping. 



TREAD AND OVER-REACH. 

Under these terms are comprised bruises and wounds of 
the coronet, inflicted by the other feet. 

A tread is said to have taken place when the inside of 
the coronet of one hind foot is struck by the calkin of the 
shoe of the other, and a bruised or contused wound is in- 
flicted. 

A tread, or wound of the coronet, must never be ne- 
glected, lest gravel should insinuate itself into the wound, 
and form deep ulcerations, called sinuses or pipes, and 
which constitute quitter. Although some mildly stimula- 
ting caustic may be occasionally required, the caustic, too 
frequently used by farriers, should be carefulty avoided, 
not only lest quittor should be formed, but lest the coro- 
nary ligament should be so injured as to be afterward inca- 
pable of secreting perfect horn. When properly treated, a 
tread is seldom productive of much injury. If the dirt is 
well washed out of it, and a pledget of tow, dipped in 
Friar's balsam"'^', bound over the wound, it will, in the ma- 
jority of cases, speedily heal. Should the bruise be exten- 
sive, or the wound deep, a poultice may be applied for one 
or two days, and then the Friar's balsam, or digestive ohit- 
ment.T Sometimes a soft tumor will form on the part, which 
will be quickly brought to suppuration by a poultice ; and 
when the matter has run out, the ulcer will heal by the 
application of the Friar's balsam, or a weak solution of blue 
vitriol. 

An over-reach is a tread upon the heel of the coronet of 
the fore foot by the shoe of the corresponding hind foot, 
and either inflicted by the toe, or by the inner edge of the 

■^Compound tincture of benzoin. 

tDigestive ointment is ecnnposed of two ounces of Venice turpentine ; yolks of two 
e^ecs ; one-h;ilt ounce of oil ot St. Johuswort. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 61 

inside of the shoe. The preventive treatment is the bevel- 
ling, or rounding ofif, of the inside edge or rim of the hind 
shoes. The cure is, the cutting away of the loose parts, 
the application of Friar's balsam, and protection from the 
dirt. 

Some horses, particularly young ones, overreach so as to 
strike the toes of the hind shoes against the fore ones, which 
is termed clinking. Keeping up the head of the horse does 
something to prevent this ; but the smith may do more by 
shortening the toe of the hind shoes, and having the web 
broad. When they are too long, they are apt to be torn 
off; when too narrow, the hind foot may bruise the sole of 
the fore one, or may be locked fast between the branches of 
the fore shoe.' 



FALSE QUARTER. 

If the coronary ligament, by which the horn of the crust 
is secreted, is divided by some cut or bruise, or eaten 
through by any caustic, there will occasionally be a divis- 
ion in the horn as it grows down, either in the form of a 
permanent sand-crack, or one portion of the horn overlap- 
ping the other. It occasionally follows neglected sand- 
crack, or it may be the consequence of quittor. This is 
exteriorly an evident fissure in the horn, ancl extending from 
the coronet to the sole, but not always penetrating to the 
lamina). It is a very serious defect, and exceedingly diffi- 
cult to remedy •, for occasionally, if the horse is over- 
vreighted or hurried on his journey, the fissure will open 
and bleed, and very serious inconvenience and lameness 
may ensue. Grit and dirt may insinuate itself into the 
aperture, and penetrate to the sensible laminae. Inflammation 
will almost of necessity be produced, and much mischief 
will be effected. While the energies of the animal are not 
severely taxed, he may not experience much inconvenience 
or pain ; but the slightest exertion will cause the fissure to 
expand, and painful lameness to follow. 

The coronary ligament must be restored to its perfect 



62 HORSE SHOERS^ MAx\UAL. 

state, or at least to the discharge of its perfect function. 
Much danger would attend the application of the caustic in 
order to effect this. A blister is rarely sufficiently active ; 
but the application, not too severely, of a heated flat or 
rounded iron to the coronet at the injured part, affords the 
best chance of success — the edges of the horn on either 
side of the crack being thinned, the hoof supported, and the 
separated parts held together by a firm encasement of pitch, 
as described when speaking of the treatment of sand-crack. 
The coronet must be examined at least once in every fort- 
night, in order to ascertain whether the desired union has 
taken place ; and, as a palliative during the treatment of 
the case, or if the treatment should be unsuccessful, a bar- 
shoe may be used, and care taken that there be no bearing 
at or immediately under the separation of the horn. This 
will be best effected when the crust is thick and the quar- 
ter strong, by paring off a little of the bottom of the crust 
at the part, so that it will not touch the shoe ; but if the 
foot is weak, an indentation or hollow should be made in 
the shoe Strain or concussion on the immediate part will 
thus be avoided, and, in sudden or violent exertion, the 
crack will not be so likely to extend upward to the coronet, 
when the whole and sound horn has begun to be formed 
there. 



QUITTOR. 



This has been described as being the result of neglected 
or bad tread or over-reach ; but it may be the consequence 
of any wound in the foot, and in any part of the foot. In 
the natural process of ulceration, matter is thrown out 
from the wound. It precedes the actual healing of the 
part. The matter which is secreted in wounds of the foot 
is usually pent up there, and, increasing in quantity, and 
urging its way in every direction, it forces the little fleshy 
plates of the coffin-l^one from the horny ones of the crust, 
or the horny sole from the fleshy sole, or even eats deeply 
into the internal parts of the foot. These pipes or sinuses 



HORSE SHOBRS' MANUAL. 63 

nm in every direction^ and constitute the essence of the 
quittoj*. 

If it arises from a wound in the bottom of the foot, the 
aperture may speedily close up, and the matter which con- 
tinues to be secreted is confined within, separating the 
horny from the fleshy sole, until it forces its way upward 
and appears at the coronet (usually at the quarter), and 
there slowly oozes out. The opening and the quantity of 
matter discharged are so small, that although over a great 
part of the quarter and the sole the horn may have sepa- 
rated from the coffin-bone, and the matter may have pene- 
trated even under the cartilages and ligaments, and into 
the coffin-joint, but little mischief would be suspected by 
an inexperienced person. The pressure of the matter 
wherever it has gone, has formed ulcerations that are in- 
disposed to heal, and that require the application of strong 
and painful stimulants to induce them to heal ; and, worse 
than this, the horn, once separated from the sensible parts 
beneath, will never again unite with them. Quitter may 
occur in both the fore and the hind feet. 

It may be necessary to remove much of the horay sole, 
which will be speedily reproduced when the fleshy surface 
beneath can be brought to a healthy condition j but if much 
of the horn at the quarters must be taken away, five or 
six months may probably elapse before it wdl be sufficiently 
grown down again to render the horse useful. 

Measures of considerable severity are indispensable. 
The application of some caustic will alone produce a 
healthy action on the ulcerated surfaces ; but on the ground 
of interest and of humanity, we protest against that brutal 
practice, or at least the extent to which it is carried, and 
is pursued by many ignorant smiths, of coring out, or deeply 
destroying the healthy as well as the diseased parts — and 
parts which no process will again restore. When any por- 
tion of the bone can be felt by the probe, the chances of 
success are diminished, and the owner and the operator 
should pause. When the joints are exposed, the case is 
hopeless, although, in a great many instances, the bones 
and the joints are exposed by the remedy and not by the 
disease. One hint may not be necessary to the practi- 



64 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

tioner, but it may guide the determination and liopes of the 
owner ; if, when a probe is introduced into the fistulous on 
the coronet — the direction of the sinuses or pipes is back- 
ward — there is much probability that a perfect cure may be 
efi'ected ; but if the direction of the sinuses is forward, the 
cure is at best dou1)tful. In the first instance, there is 
neither bone nor joint to be injured 5 in the other, the more 
important parts of the foot are in danger, and the principal 
action and concussion are found. 

Neglected bruises of the sole sometimes lay the founda- 
tion for quitter. When the foot is flat, it is very liable to 
be bruised if the horse is ridden fast over a rough and stony 
road ; or a small stone, insinuating itself between the shoe 
and the sole, or confined by the curvature of the shoe, will 
frequently lame the horse. The heat and tenderness of the 
part, the occasional redness of the horn, and the absence of 
puncture, will clearly mark the bruise. The sole must 
then be thinned, and particularly over the bruised part, 
and, in neglected cases, it must be pared even to the quick, 
in order to ascertain whether the inflammation has run on 
to suppuration. Bleeding at the toe will be clearly indi- 
cated ; and poultices, and such other means as have either 
been described under '' Inflammation of the Feet," or will 
be pointed out under the next head. The principal causes 
of bruises of the foot are leaving the sole too much exposed 
by means of a narrow-webbed shoe, or the smith paring out 
the sole too closely, or the pressure of the shoe on the sole, 
or the introduction of gravel or stone between the shoe and 
the sole. 

The author subjoins the mode of cure in this disease as 
it has been practised by two veterinary surgeons. They 
are both excellent, and, so far as can well be the case, sat- 
isfactory. 

Mr. Percival says : " The ordinary mode of cure con- 
sists in the introduction of caustic into the sinus -, and so 
long as the cartilage preserves its integrity — by which I 
mean, is free from decay — this is perhaps the most prompt 
and effectual mode of proceeding. The farrier's practice is 
to mix about half a drachm of corrosive sublimate in pow- 
der with twice or thrice the quantity of flour, and make 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 65 

them into a paste with water. This he takes up by little 
at a time with the point of his probe, and works it about 
into the sinus until the paste appears rising in the orifice 
above. After this is done, he commonly has the horse 
walked about for an hour or two, or even sent to slow work 
again, which produces a still more effectual solution of the 
caustic, at the same time that it tends greatly to its uni- 
form and thorough diffusion into every recess and winding 
of the sinus. The consequence of this sharp caustic dress- 
ing is a general slough from the sinus. Every part of its 
interior surface is destroyed, and the dead particles become 
agglutinated, and cast off along with the discharges in the 
form of a dark, firm curdled mass, which the farrier calls 
th^ core ; and so it commonly proves, for granulations fol- 
low close behind it, and fill up the sinus." 

The other mode of treatment is that of Mr. Newport, a 
surgeon of long standing : '^ After the shoe has been re- 
moved, thin the sole until it will yield to the pressure of 
the thumb ; then cut the under parts of the wall in an 
oblique direction from the heel to the anterior part, imme- 
diately under the seat of complaint, and only as far as it 
extends, and rasp the side of the wall thin enough to give 
way to the pressure of the over-distended parts, and put 
on a bar-shoe rather elevated from the frog. Ascertain 
with a probe the direction of the sinuses, and introduce into 
them a saturated solution of sulphate of zinc, by means of 
a small syringe. Place over this dressing the common 
poultice, or the turpentine ointment, and renew the appli- 
cation every twenty-four hours. I have frequently found 
three or four such applications complete a cure. I should 
recommend that when the probe is introduced, in order to 
ascertain the progress of cure, that it be gently and care- 
fully used, otherwise it may break down the new-formed 
lymph. I have found the solution very valuable where the 
synovial fluid (joint-oil) has escaped, but not to be if the 
inflammation of the parts is gi*eat. 



66 . HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL, 



PRICK OR WOUND IN THE SOLE OR CRUST. 

This is the most frequent cause of quittor. It is evi- 
dent that the sole is very liable to be wounded by nails, 
pieces of glass, or even sharp flints. Every part of the 
foot is subject to injuries of this description, The usual 
place at which these wounds are found, is in the hollow be- 
tween the bars and the frog, or in the frog itself. In the 
fore-feet the injury will be generally recognized on the in- 
ner quarter, and on the hind-feet near the toe. In fact, 
these are the thinnest parts of the fore and hind-feet. 
Much more frequently the lamina) are wounded by the 
nail in shoeing ; or if the nail does not penetrate through 
the internal surface of the crust, it is driven so close to it 
that it presses upon the fleshy parts beneath, and causes 
irritation and inflammation, and at length ulceration. When 
a horse becomes suddenly lame after the legs have been 
carefully examined, and no cause of lameness appears in 
them, the shoe should be taken off. In many cases the 
ofi*ending substance will be immediately detected, or the 
additional heat felt in some part of the foot will point out 
the seat of injury ; or, if the crust is rapped with the ham- 
mer all round, the flinching of the horse will discover it ; 
or pressure with the pincers will render it evident. 

When the shoe is removed for this examination, the 
smith should never be permitted to wrench it off, but each 
nail should be drawn separately, and examined as it is 
drawn, when some moisture appearing upon it will not unfre- 
quently reveal 11 ^ spot at v;hich matter has been thrown out. 

Sudden lameness occurring within two or three days 
after the horse has been shod, will lead to the suspicion that 
the smith bas been in fault ; yet no one who considers the 
thinness of the crust, and the difficulty of shoeing many 
feet, will blame him for sometimes pricking the animal. 
His fault will consist in concealing or denying that of 
which he will almost always be aware at the time of shoe- 
ing, from the flinching of the horse, or the dead sound, or 
the peculiar resistance that may be noticed in the driving 
of thenail. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 67 

When the seat of mischief is ascertained^ the sole should 
be thinned round it, and at the nail-hole or the puncture, it 
should be pared to the quick. The escape of some matter 
will now probably tell the nature of the injury, and remove 
its consequences. If it be puncture of the sole effected by 
some nail, or any similar body, picked up on the road, all 
that will be necessary is to enlarge the opening a little, 
and then to place on it a fledget of tow dipped in Friar's 
balsam, and over that a little common stopping. If there 
is much heat and lameness, a poultice should be applied. 

A puncture near the center of the sole is most dangerous, 
from its liability to wound the flexor tendon where it is in- 
serted in the coffin-bone, from which much action is requir- 
ed ; or it may even penetrate the joint between the navicu- 
lar and coffin-bone. 

If pricked by a nail, the treatment above described will 
usually soon effect a cure.. It may, however, be prudent 
to keep the foot stopped for a few days. If the accident 
has been neglected, and matter begins to be formed, and to 
be pent up, and to press on the neighboring parts, and the 
horse evidently suffers extreme pain, and is sometimes 
scarcely able to put his foot to the ground, and much mat- 
ter is poured out when the opening is enlarged, farther pre- 
cautions must be adopted. The fact must be recollected 
that the living and dead horn will never unite, and every 
portion of the horny sole that has separated from the fleshy 
sole above must be removed. The separation must be fol- 
lowed as far as it reaches. Much of the success of the 
treatment depends on this. 'No small strip or edge of sepa- 
rated horn must be suffered to press upon any part of the 
wound. The exposed fleshy sole must then be touched, 
but not too severely, with the butyr (chloride) of antimony, 
some soft and dry tow being spread on the part, the foot 
stopped, and a poultice placed over all if the foot seems to 
require it. On the following day a thin pellicle of horn 
will frequently be found over a part or the whole of the 
wound. This should be, yet very lightly, again touched 
with the caustic ; but if there is an appearance of fungus 
sprouting from the exposed surface, the application of the 
butyr must be more severe, the tow being again placed 



68 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

over it, so as to afford considerable yet uniform pressure. 
Many days do not often elapse before the new born covers 
the whole of the wound. In these extensive openings the 
Friar's balsam will not always be successful, but the cure 
must be effected by the judicious and never too severe use 
of the caustic. Bleeding at the toe and physic will be re- 
sorted to as useful auxiliaries when much inflammation 
arises. 



COENS. 



In the angle oetween the bars and the quarters the horn 
of the sole has sometimes a red appearance, and is more 
spongy and softer than at any other part. The horse 
flinches when this portion of the horn is pressed upon, and 
occasional or permanent lameness is produced. This dis- 
ease of the foot is termed corns : bearing this resemblance 
to the corn of the human being, that it is produced by pres- 
sure, and is a cause of lameness. When corns are ne- 
glected, so much inflammation is produced in that part of 
the sensible sole, that suppuration follows, and to that 
quittor succeeds, and the matter either undermines the 
horny sole, or is discharged at the coronet. 

The pressure hereby produced manifests itself in various 
ways. When the foot becomes contracted, the part of the 
sole inclosed between the external crust that is wiring in, 
and the bars that are opposing that contraction, is placed 
in a kind of vice, and becomes inflamed ; hence it is rare to 
see a contracted foot without corns. When the shoe is 
suffered to remain on too long, it becomes embedded in the 
heel of the foot : the external crust grows down on the 
outside of it, and the bearing is thrown on this angular por- 
tion of the sole. No part of the sole can bear continued 
pressure, and inflammation and corns are the result. From 
the length of wear, the shoe sometimes becomes loosened 
at the heels, and gravel Insinuates itself between the shoe 
and the crust, and accumulates in this angle, and sometimes 
seriously wounds it. 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 69 

The bars are too frequently cut away, and then the heel 
of the shoe must be beveled inward, in order to answer to 
this absurd and injurious shaping of the foot. By this 
slanting direction of the heel of the shoe inward, an unnat- 
ural disposition to contraction is given, and the sole must 
suffer in two ways — in being pressed upon by the shoe, and 
squeezed between tlie outer crust and the external portion 
of the bar. The shoe is often made unnecessarily narrow 
at the heels, by which this angle, seemingly less disposed 
to bear pressure than any other part of the foot, is exposed 
to accidental bruises. If, in the paring out of the foot, the 
smith should leave the bars prominent, he too frequently 
neglects to pare away the horn in the angle between the 
bars and the external crust ; or if he cuts away the bars, 
he scarcely touches the horn at this point ; and thus, before 
the horse has been shod a fortnight, the shoe rests on this 
angle, and produces corns. The use of a shoe for the fore- 
feet, thickened at the heels, is, and especially in weak feet, 
a source of corns, from ihe undue bearing there is on the 
heels, and the concussion to which they are subject. 

Corns are most frequent and serious in horses with thin 
horn and flat soles, and low, weak heels. They do not 
often occur in the outside heel. It is of a stronger con- 
struction than the inside one. The method adopted by 
shoeing-smiths to ascertain the existence of corn by the 
pain evinced when they pinch the bar and crust with their 
irons, is very fallacious. If the horn is naturally thin, the 
horse will shrink under no great pressure, although he has 
no corn, and occasionally the bars are so strong as not to 
give way under any pressure. 

The cure of old corns is difficult ; for as all the shoeing 
has some tendency to produce pressure here, the habit of 
throwing out this diseased horn is difficult to get rid of 
when once contracted ; recent corns, however, will yield to 
good shoeing. 

The first thing to be done is to well pare out the angle 
between the crust and the bars. Two objects are answered 
by this : the extent of the disease will be ascertained, and 
one cause of it removed. A very small drawing-knife must 
be used for this purpose. The corn must be pared out to 



70 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

the Very bottomj taking care not to wound the sole. It 
may then be discovered whether there is any effusion of 
bk)od or matter underneath. If this is suspected, an open- 
ing must be made through the horn, the, matter evacuated, 
the separated horn taken away, the coarse and extent of 
the sinuses explored, and the treatment recommended for 
quittor adopted. Should there be no collection of fluid, 
the butyr of antimony should be applied over the whole 
extent of the corn, after the horn has been thinned as 
closely as possible. The object of this is to stimulate the 
sole to throw out more healthy horn. In bad cases a bar- 
shoe may be put on, so chambered that there shall be no 
pressure on the diseased part. This may be worn for one 
or two shoeings, but not constantly, for there are few frogs 
that would bear the constant pressure of the bar-shoe ; and 
the want of pressure on the heel generally occasioned by 
their use, would produce a softened and bulbous state of 
the heels, that would of itself be an inevitable source of 
lameness. 

The cause of corn is a most important subject of inquiry, 
and which a careful examination ot the foot and the shoe 
will easily discover. The cause being ascertained, the ef- 
fect may, to a great extent, be afterward removed. Turn- 
ing out to grass, after the horn is a little grown, first with 
a bar-shoe, and afterward with the shoe fettered on one 
side, or with tips, will often be serviceable. A horse that 
has once had corns to any considerable extent, should, at 
every shoeing, have the seat of the corn well pared out, 
and the butyr of antimony applied. The seated shoe 
should be used, with a web sufficiently thick to cover the 
place of the corn, and extending as far back as it can be 
made to do without injury to the frog. 

Low, weak heels should be rarely touched with the 
knife, or anything more be done to them than lightly to 
rasp them, in order to give them a level surface. Where 
corns exist of any consequence, they are a disgrace to the 
smith, the groom, and to the owner. 



HOKSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 71 



THRUSH. 



This is a discharge of offensive matter from the cleft of 
the frog, it is intlammatiou of the lower surface of the 
sensible frog, and during which pus is secreted together 
with or instead of horn. When the frog is in its sound 
statC; the cleft sinks but a little way into it ; but when it 
becomes contracted or otherwise diseased, it extends in 
length, and penetrates even to the sensible horn within, 
and through this unnaturally deepened fissure the thrushy 
discharge proceeds. A very full and fleshy state of the 
body may be a predisposing cause of thrush, but the imme- 
diate and grand cause is m.oisture. This should never be 
forgotten, for it will lead a great way toward the proper 
treatment of the disease. If the feet are habitually covered 
with any moist application — his standing so much on his 
own dung is a fair example — thrush will inevitably appear. 
It is caused by anything that interferes with the healthy 
structure and action of the frog. We find it in the hinder 
feet oftener and worse than in the fore, because iu our sta- 
ble managem^it the hinder feet are too much exposed to 
the pernicious effects of the dung and the urine, moistening, 
or, as it were, macerating, and at the same time irritating 
them. 

In the fore-feet, thrushes are usually connected with 
contraction. We have stated that they are both the cause 
and the effect of contraction. The pressure on the frog 
from the wiring in of the heels will produce pain and in- 
flammation; and the inflammation, by the increased heat 
and suspended function of the part, will dispose to con- 
traction. Horses of all ages, and in almost all situations, 
are subject to thrush. The unshod colt is frequently thus 
diseased. 

Thrushes are not always accompanied by lameness. In 
a great many cases the appearance of the foot is scarcely 
or not at all altered, and the disease can only be detected 
by close examination, or the peculiar smell of the discharge. 
The frog may not appear to be rendered in the slightest 
degree tender by it, and therefore the horse may not be 



72 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

considered by many as unsound. Every disease, however, 
should be considered as legal unsoundness, and especially 
a disease which, although not attended with present detri- 
ment, must not be neglected, for it will eventually injure 
and lame the horse. 

The progress of a neglected thrush, although sometimes 
slow, is sure. The frog begins to contract in size — it be- 
comes rough, ragged, brittle, tender — the discharge is more 
copious and more offensive— the horn gradually disappears 
— a' mass of hardened mucus usurps its place — this easily 
peels off, and the sensible frog* remains exposed — the horse 
cannot bear it to be touched — fungous granulations sprhig 
from it — they spread around — the sole becomes under-run, 
and canker steals over the greater part of the foot. 

If a young colt, fat and full of blood, has a bad thrush, 
with much discharge, it will be prudent to accompany the 
attempt at cure by a dose of physic, or a course of diuret- 
ics. A few diuretics may not be injurious when we are en- 
deavoring to dry up thrush in older horses. 

There are many recipes to stop a running thrush. Al- 
most every application of an astringent, but not of tl.e too 
caustic nature, will have the effect. The common ^gypti- 
acura (vinegar boiled with honey and verdigris ) is a good 
liniment ; but the most effectual and the safest — drying up 
the discharge speedily, but not suddenly — is a paste com- 
posed of blue vitriol, tar and lard, in proportions according 
to the virulence of the canker. A pledget of tow, covered 
with it, should be introduced as deeply as possible, yet 
without force, into the cleft of the frog every night, and re- 
moved in the morning before the horse goes to work. At- 
tention should at the same time, as in other diseases of the 
foot, be paid to the apparent cause of the complaint, and 
that cause should be carefully obviated or removed. Be- 
fore the application of the paste, the frog should be exam- 
ined, and every loose part of the horn or hardened discharge 
removed ; and if much of the frog is then expoi^ed, a larger 
and wider piece of tow, covered with the paste, may be 
placed over it, in addition to the pledget introduced into the 
cleft of the frog. It will be necessary to preserve the frog- 
moist while the cure is in progress, and this may be done 



HORSE SHOERS^ MANUAL. 73 

by filling the feet with tow, covered • by common stopping, 
or using the felt pad, likewise covered with it. Turning 
out would be prejudicial rather than of benefit to thrushy 
feet, except the dressing is continued, and the feet defended 
from moisture. 



CANKER 



Is a separation of the horn from the sensible part of the 
foot, and the sprouting of the fungous matter (proud flesh) 
instead of it, occupying a portion or even the whole of the 
sole and frog. It is the occasional consequence of bruise, 
puncture, corn, quittor and thrush, and is exceedingly diffi- 
cult to cure. It is more frequently the consequence of ne- 
glected thrush than of any other disease of the foot, or 
rather it is thrush involving the frog, the bars and the sole, 
and making the foot in one mass of rank putrefaction. 

It is often found in, and is almost peculiar to, the heavy 
breed of cart-horses, and partly resulting from constitu- 
tional predisposition. Horses with white legs and thick 
skins, and much hair upon their legs — the very character 
of many dray-horses — are subject to canker, especially if 
they have an attack of grease, or their heels are habitually 
thick and greasy. The disposition to canker is certainly 
hereditary. 

Although canker is a disease most difficult to remove, it 
is easily prevented. Attention to the punctures to which 
these heavy horses, with their clubbed feet and brittle hoofs, 
are more than any others subject in shoeing, and to the 
bruises and treads on the coronet, to which, from their 
awkwardness and weight, they are so liable, and the greasy 
heels which a very slight degree of negligence will produce 
in them, and the stopping of the thrushes, which are so apt 
in them to run on to the separation of the horn from the 
sensible frog, will most materially lessen the number of 
cankered feet. 

The cure of canker is the business of the veterinary sur- 
geon, and a most painful and tedious business it is. The 



74 HOKSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

principles on which he proceeds are, first of all, to remove 
the extraneous fungous growth ; and for this purpose he 
will need the aid of the knife and the caustic, or the cautery, 
for he should cut away every portion of horn which is in 
the slightest degree separated from the sensible parts be- 
neath. He will have to discourage the growth of fresh 
fungus, and to bring the foot into that state in which it will 
again secrete healthy horn. A slight and daily application 
of the chloride of antimony, and that not where the new 
horn is forming, but on the surface which continues to be 
diseased, and accompanied by as firm but equal pressure as 
can be made — the careful avoidance of the slightest de- 
gree of moisture — the horse being exercised or worked in 
the mill, or wherever the foot will not be exposed to wet, 
and that exercise adopted as early as possible, and even 
from the beginning, if the malady is confined to the sole 
and frog — these means will succeed, if the disease is capa- 
ble of cure. It is proper to resort to neurotomy, if the 
means of cure are persisted in. Medicine is not of much 
avail in the cure of canker, but as it sometimes alternates 
with other diseases, a course of alternatives or diuretics 
may be administered, when the cure is nearly completed. 



OSSIFICATION OF THE CARTILAGES. 

The cartilages embedded in the heels of the feet from 
bruises, sprains, etc., are subject to inflammation, and the 
result ol' that inflammation is that the cartilages are ab- 
sorbed, and bone substituted in their stead. This is com- 
mon in heavy draught-horses, particularly as they are used 
on paved streets. 

No evident inflammation of the foot, or great, or perhaps 
even perceptible lameness, accompanies this change; a 
mere slight degree of stiffness may have been observed, 
which, in a horse of more rapid pace, would have been 
lameness. Even when the change is completed, there is 
not ill many cases anything more than a slight increase of 
stiff'ness, little or not at all interfering with the usefulness 



HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 75 

of the liorse. When this altered structure appears in the 
lighter horse, the lameness is more decided, and means 
should be taken to arrest the progress of the change. 
These are blisters or firing 5 but, after the parts have be- 
come bony, no operation will restore the cartilage. Some 
benefit, however, will be derived from the use of leather 
soles. Advantage has resulted from bar shoes in conjunc- 
tion with leather. 

Connected with ringbone the lameness may be very great. 



WEAKNESS OF THE FOOT. 

This is more accurately a bad formation than a disease ; 
often, indeed, the result of disease, but in many instances 
the natural construction of the foot. The term weak foot 
is familiar to every horseman, and the consequence is too 
severely felt by all who have to do with horses. In the 
slanting of the crust from the coronet to the toe, a less angle 
is almost invariably formed, amounting probably to not 
more than forty instead of forty-five degrees ; and, after the 
horse has been worked for one or two years the line is not 
straight, but a little indented or hollow, midway between 
the coronet and the toe. This has been described as the 
accompaniment of pumiced feet, but it is often seen in weak 
feet, that, although they might become pumiced by severity 
of work, do not otherwise have the sole convex. The crust 
is not only less oblique than it ought to be, but it has not 
the smooth even appearance of the good foot. The surface 
is sometimes irregularly roughened, but it is much oftener 
roughened in circles or rings. The form of the crust like- 
wise presents too much the appearance of a cone ; the bot- 
tom of the foot is unnaturally wide in proportion to the 
coronet ; and the whole of the foot is generally but not 
always larger than it should be. 

When the foot is lifted, it will often present a round and 
circular appearance, with a fullness of frog, and would mis- 
lead the inexperienced, and indeed be considered as almost 
the perfection of structure ; but, being examined more 



76 HORSE SHOERS' MANUAL. 

closely, many glaring defects will be seen. The sole is flat, 
and the smith finds that it will bear little or no paring. 
The bars are small in size. They are not cut away by the 
smith, but they can be scarcely said to have any existence. 
The heels are low, so low that the very coronet seems almost 
to touch the ground ; and the crust, if examined, appears 
scarcely thick enough to hold the nails. 

Horses with these feet can never stand much work. They 
will be subject to corns, to bruises of the sole, to convexity 
of the sole, to punctures in nailing, to breaking away of the 
crust, to inflammation of the foot, and to sprain and injury 
of the pastern and the fetlock and the flexor tendon. 

These feet admit of little improvement. Shoeing as sel- 
dom as may be, and with a light yet wide concave web ; 
little or no paring at the time of shoeing, and as little vio- 
lent work as possible, and especially on rough roads, may 
protract for a long period the evil day, but he who buys a 
horse with these feet will sooner or later have cause to re- 
pent his bargain. 



Note. — Mode of Repairing Horses' Feet. — Horses which stand nearly or quite 
the year round, sometimes from year to year in the staMe, are apt to have the feet get 
into a dry and fevered condition ; the hoof becomes dry, hard, and often contracted, 
frequently also very brittle, and the horse sometimes suffers lameness in conse- 
quence. Now one of the most eifective means of remedj-ing these difficulties, where 
the horse cannot be spared to be turned into pasture for quite a season, is in the 
spring, when the ground is breaking up, and the winter's frost disappearing, and 
no lasting freeze is to be apprehended, to have all of the shoes taken otf and drive 
the horse daily about business, as usual, without them. The roads remain muddy 
and soft, usually, so that a horse may be thus driven daily for a ])eriod of three or 
four weeks, and a great improvementis effected in the feet in every resi>ect. 1 have 
had a horse whose 'eet were fevered, hoof contracted, hard and brittle, thoroughly 
renovated or cured by a season of such usage. When the ground becomes hard, 
and the feet become too tender to drive longer, then have the shoes put on. This 
treatment of course would not be applicable on pavements, but throughout the 
country in all the northern states, it is. Although daily driving a horse, in the prac- 
tice of medicine, of late years, I have never had shoes put on the hind feet except in 
the frozen part of the year, and the expense of shoeing is not only saved, but I find 
the horse equally as useful, and the feet all the better for the practice. — Medica, in 
Moore's Rural New Yorker. 



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